I agree that’s a message to take away from TLJ, but there’s something to be said about honoring the past too.
I feel like it does honour the past, but it focuses on the past’s ideas and flaws rather than just reusing props and plot ideas. Again, look at how Yoda was used, and the overall message of the movie. It was never disrespectful. Look how it treated Luke, imagine how disrespectful to the character to pretend that he just paused for 30 years with zero growth— especially with Abrams making him a macguffin, where he has let this new empire rise and Han die. If he was as we remembered him, that plot point should never have happened.