Well of course Luke was hero figure to me and I think it was a bit hurtful to kill him off. Han was enough. At the end of ROTJ, you kind of imagined them all to live happy ever after. Seems it wasn’t the case and our heroes are now replaced with ones I cannot relate to at all.
What would you have done with Leia for IX?
I admit I compartmentalize the Star Wars films outside of the Original Trilogy. Pick and choose the films (or parts of them I like) and ignore the rest, a “head-canon” of sorts. For me the three of them still live on too!