I mean yeah it’s ironic SW went back to film once digital reached filmic quality, but it’s all a matter of approach. George always tried to push technical limits and go for the next big thing. He didn’t shoot digital on AOTC and ROTS because he preferred how it looked, he did it because it was new and made the effects easier. Filmmakers like JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson always shoot on film, just because that’s the look they prefer. When it came to making new worlds and environments, for Lucas that was his first priority - on ROTS before he even wrote a word of his script he’d assigned his art department to draft up as many new planets as possible. It’s just a different approach, naturally when you finally have a different filmmaker on the series they’ll have their own way of approaching it that won’t necessarily prioritize what Lucas prioritized. On the one hand it’s weird to me that that’s all he cared about in regards to his opinion of TFA, but on the other hand to an extent it seems like that was what he cared about most when working on the PT too.