But I honestly wonder if there still couldn’t have been a way to tell a story set 41 years after Endor and within the same continuity as the EU that didn’t require audiences to know what had transpired in that time.
Sure. Just set your story 200-1000 years into the future, don’t use any OT characters, and don’t reference any events from the post-ROTJ SW Universe. Which is as it should’ve been, since the window of opportunity for a proper ST starring Luke, Leia, et al. closed after the early '00s.