From several comments I’ve read about what George intended if he made a sequel trilogy, was it really Disney who pushed the EU to Legends, or was that from George? It happened after the purchase, but so did the real development of the sequel trilogy. The way I’m reading the events is that this was an internal Lucasfilm dictate because the films trump the books and related materials.
The 2008 Clone Wars set a major precedent when it basically disregarded the entire continuity of the 2002-2005 clone wars multimedia project.
So yeah, I think it’s fair to say that even if George had been more directly involved with Episode VII he still wouldn’t have felt beholden to the existing EU in any way.
You know, I’ve watched both and I don’t see it as that different. From the start until the shot where the light in the tower goes out, the 2003 series is set before anything in the 2008 series. Only that last portion, which takes place on the eve of Ep III, isn’t completely in line, and even then, it isn’t far off. It isn’t nearly as far off as the Legends origin story of Han Solo by A.C. Crispin vs. the origin story in Solo. To me it doesn’t feel like they threw it out as much as they had spent several years developing these characters and had a slightly different take on things. And even then, I think most of the 2003 series still works. But Clone Wars 2008 seasons 1-6 take place between those two sections of Clone Wars 2003. It is only season 7 that overlaps with the last section of Clone Wars 2003.