Considering the backlash against midichlorians, I think George’s intent to explore the Whills would have led to far more things that fans would have fond fault with over what we got. I think what we got was an epic conclusion to an epic saga in the line of what George might have done if the next movie had come out in 1989 (with different, older actors portraying Han, Luke, and Leia). I think Palpatine coming back was a genius move. If the saga was going to continue past ROTJ and tie in with the other stories (the PT were always going to have the major points they did) that keeping Palpatine a the bad guy is such a nice echo of Star Wars origins in Flash Gordon. Ming always came back so it make sense that so does Palpatine. Though that seems like a last minute addition, I think there is some evidence that that was the ending that Abrams wanted to see all along. But George was going to explore the origins of the Force and I think that would have backfired. I think other things he would have done he might have done better himself, but he seems to have been derailed from the formula that made the OT such a success - and that his mythic action in space. Larger than life mythic archetypes saving the galaxy in mythic ways in space ships with space battles. I see those archetypes in the ST. I think TFA could have been much better done, but Abrams was too scared to make the movie he should have for fear of alienating fans. I think in the end he realized that he needed to make a cool movie and hope the fans came around. I think TROS took more risks and as a result made a better story. I think Lucas was going to go exploring in his world more and I don’t think fans would have liked it.