It’s a good point that in both TFA and TROS Abrams doesn’t seem to understand the basic tension principles at play that made the climax of Star Wars and Jedi work. It wasn’t just that the weapon was destructive, and could cause destruction. It’s that the destructive weapon was pointed at people we cared about, and the heroes had to disarm and destroy the weapon before it went off in the worst way.
It’s why fan-edits that combine Starkiller firing on Hosnian Prime with the climax of the movie tend to make that film work better. The battle at the end of TFA and ESPECIALLY the battle here at the end of TROS are dramatically inert because THAT’S the difference between knocking a gun off a table and KILLING THE PERSON POINTING A GUN AT YOU.
ROTJ’s climax was a re-tread (a lot of ROTJ was a re-tread, Lucas admitted as much a couple times - it’s his ANH makeup with more money) but at least the idea of the gun being aimed (and even fired) at our heroes directly was still intact and it added stakes and tension to the proceedings. In TROS you had an entire fleet of Star Destroyers, some of which had planet-destroying guns, but there was never any goal but “Don’t let them get out.”
They should have already gotten out and the race was to stop them from being able to fire.
Now, hold on a sec. ANH and TFA share the exact same pacing of the use of the weapon (the one area I do see a clear parallel). In ANH it is test on Alderaan and then is menacing the base on Yavin IV. In TFA it is tested on the Hosnian system and then turns to D’Qar in the Ileenium system to destroy the Resistance base. So how can the battle of the First Death Star and the Battle of Starkiller Base have less dramatic tension? We see them preparing to fire in both (something added to ANH late in development). And ROTJ and TROS do the same thing. We see the weapon in action and then there is a race to destroy it. And in the case of TROS, there are many weapons ready to go out and force the surrender of all the major worlds of the Republic. The stakes are even higher and I got that. Each one of these films and every time I see it that tension is clear. If anything, ROTJ is the weakest because the Death Star is not mobile yet and any threat to other systems is more distant while the threat to the fleet is what is imminent. Each battle handles the situation in a different way. ANH requires the McGuffin plans to locate the weak point and it is a race against time with Tarkin giving the order to fire almost as Luke fires his shot. ROTJ adds the parley between Luke and Palpatine, then his duel with Vader, then his torture by Palpatine. The real drama of this version is in the throne room. Then in TFA it they don’t have secret plans, but they have a sabotage mission where Han faces his son, creating yet a different slant to the same type of battle. The X-wings don’t get their chance until Chewy blows the charges. Then in TROS, it isn’t the Death Star weapon that endangers the fleet, it is Palpatine himself. This time Rey directly stops him by taking his attention and letting the fleet finish their work. Each of these is a race against time and I found each pretty tense. Outside of ANH, the space battle is secondary to the other drama going on, but each finds its own way to build tension in the battle and tension in the parallel story. If Starkiller doesn’t destroy the Hosnian system, then how does anyone know it works? The urgency is minimized because the weapon may or may not work. But we do see the weapon work and we know the resistance base (where Leia is) will be destroyed if the raid is not successful. The part of the film that just yanks me right out is everyone on Takodana seeing the destruction of the Hosnian system. Unless they are orbiting the same star, that is so impossible that I consider it one of the two worst scenes in Star Wars (the other being C-3PO’s entire role on Geonosis). I think TFA has some serious issues but I think they can be easily fixed without altering the structure. But the battle sequence is one of the best parts of the film (along with the opening).
There is another factor that I always harp on about (it seems I’m somewhat alone in this) and that is the fact that Luke’s showdown with Vader/Palpatine was irrelevant to the battle. In fact, somewhat ironically, fans have postulated TROS-like scenarios to explain this fact away ie “oh, Palpatine was guiding the Imperial fleet through the Force”. The truth is Lucas suddenly decided that the point of the series was Anakin’s redemption rather than Luke’s being the only hope for saving the galaxy. But I seem to be one of five people on earth actually bothered by this…
In TROS the stakes were higher because Rey’s interaction with Palpatine was crucial to the outcome of the battle. Her failure would have been the Resistance’ failure as well. Better yet, her being drawn to the Dark Side made sense - she literally had no apparent recourse but to sell her soul to save her loved ones. This is what Luke should have been offered in ROTJ rather than “ha ha you got angry so you don’t get a Jedi merit badge…”