Not to start an argument but at least TFA and the “subsequent garbage” had characters that grew and you came to care about, and were more than faces with a single trait.
Characters that grew? Rey was a Mary Sue from the beginning and grew into an even bigger one. Then they ruined Finn, which was pretty much the only remotely interesting character in TFA. Not to mention they ruined all OT characters.
R1 is not really supposed to have much character growth anyway, since it is set over a very short period of time.
and you came to care about, and were more than faces with a single trait.
I came to care about them? Sorry but I did not. On the other hand, I did at least slightly care about the lead characters in R1.