I was never a big fan of the old EU. I never considered any of it canon. It never seemed like real Star Wars to me as a kid. I think making a few of the best aspects canon like Thrawn is the best way to go.
I think exactly the opposite. I mean, the moment you decanonize the Expanded Universe with the pretext of more “creative freedom” then you cannot steal concepts, characters and events from the Expanded Universe, because It’s not only unfair to the authors who wrote the books and the comics, but it’s also contradictory to the motivation for which you decanonized the Expanded Universe in the first place.