But if I had to guess, the filmmakers were honestly not sure what the answer was themselves, and left it ambiguous so someone else could answer it, or let the audience pick whichever interpretation they preferred.
JJ Abrams in a nutshell.
EDIT: To make myself clear, I still enjoy a good portion of what this film does. And seeing as how the interpretation that I call for with this movie are mostly the “canon” answers, I don’t really have a problem with this flaw in the movie.