TCW fits well with the microseries for the most part but it does contradict it in a few places. George was not afraid to completely negate anything in the EU he didn’t care for. Which is why incidents like Karen Traviss’ loud and sudden departure from the franchise happened. And why suddenly there was the weird continuity issue they had to try and smooth over when he decided to rename the Sith planet Korriban to Moraband.
What I’ve personally always been fascinated by is George’s love of the comics. He pulled Ayla Secura right out of the comics and adapted her to live action in AOTC. Her Master from the comics Quinlan Vos also almost made a live action appearance in ROTS but ended up instead as a vocal reference. Asajj Ventress, was another comics character he used quite heavily in the animated series.
He also heavily borrowed from Ki-Adi Mundi’s backstory from the comics for Anakin in ROTS. Married and being the “only” knight to be given a seat on the council without being granted the rank of Master.
And then there’s Darth Talon. Another comic character that George became enamored with. He first tried to use her in the long cancelled Darth Maul game and then later was planning on using her as the antagonist in his version of VII.
And his love of the comics continues. He’s been spotted heading into comic shops every now and then to buy the latest issues and even bought all of the original art for a Marvel Han Solo comic.
Yeah, Lucas’ relationship with the EU is quite interesting. Although a lot of SW fans would prefer for canon to be this rigid and consistent thing, it seems like Lucas always treated it similarly to how Star Trek have always done it where the novels, comics, etc. are just stories to enjoy and use as a “head-canon” or “what-ifs” until a new series or movie contradicts it. And as far as Legends are concerned, that was technically the case with G-canon, though you wouldn’t know if from scrolling through wookieepedia.
As a side note: do you know if there actually was any original art from the Han Solo series for Lucas to buy? Having read it I got the impression it was done digitally, so I’ve always wondered if it actually happened or not. Every article I’ve read always seemed to skip that part and only says he wanted to buy it.