Avoiding the OT legacy characters, or having them appear as weird CGI faces and not actually doing much, only helps that. Instead, too often we are often “told, not shown”, and not “show, don’t tell”. We are then expected to connect with what little setting this era have been given. None of it seems planned out very well, it comes off as ad-hoc, gimmicky, or lacking. Like Caston says in his OP: it and the OT heroes deserves so much more, and I agree with Channel when he says the writing for it sucks, which leads me to being somewhere between frustration and indifference for this New Republic era.
I think many of us feel similar, or are starting to feel this way, particularly on “told, not shown”, and not “show, don’t tell”.
So much that I’ve given up on it. No more Filoni & Favreau series or films for me. They just don’t appeal to me anymore, and I’m fed up of feeling frustrated and indifferent. Instead I’ll stick to Andor, Visions, Acolyte, Skeleton Crew, and The Dawn of the Jedi film. Rey’s NJO film too, given it is set past that ST era and is being made by new talents that will hopefully bring something fresh and different.
I like that positivity, and willing to give these non-F&F shows and films a fair crack. A little like Vladius’ separation example above. I still hope the Mandoverse does improve, I hoped it after Andor, where me and others naively thought the bar in Star Wars may have to be raised, but obviously wasn’t. But there really doesn’t appear to be any indication or willingness to improve or change things up, so I imagine that aspect of Star Wars, along with the current New Republic era, will continue along the disenchanted path it is already on.