Another problem with the Plinkett reviews is that they made people forget about the suppression of the original versions and think that the prequels were fans’ only grevience with Lucas, so Disney felt a lot of pressure to make sequels that didn’t resemble the prequels and no pressure to release the original versions of the movies. I wish Plinkett reviwed the Special Editions in additon to the prequels.
I don’t think we can be sure that the popularity of these reviews led to the ‘play it safe’ nature of the TFA. Mr Plinkett did state in his Star Trek 2009 review that J.J. should direct them though. Disney probably just read the general mood of the fandom at that stage. To test this theory he needs to do a 70-minute video about the state of the Special Edition changes, and we know he’s not a fan because of that interview with Alexandre Philippe.