Now I know if someone proposed the question that is asked in the title my response would be a cynical "Oh to reap the mountains of money from further home cinema releases, merchandising, EU titles blah blah blah to feed George's insatiable hunger for blah blah blah...."
But seriously?
As a production company what is their purpose? I'm not talking about ILM or Skywalker Sound or other separate post-production facilities. Lucasfilm don't produce anything that doesn't have a Star Wars logo on it. I can't imagine they did much on Crystal Skulls that Paramount couldn't or didn't do other than make sure the Lucasfilm name came up first and then sit back and watch the money flood in.
We've all accepted the fact that George isn't going to go off and direct his small experimental films. He hasn't lent his name or financial support to anything since Radioland Murders in 1994 other than the upcoming Tuskegee Airmen film "Red Tails" which was been in production for forever.
Speaking of which what's the point of that project anyway. It's been a film that George's wanted to make for a long time (one he probably put on the back-burner to go forward with the prequels) then he only goes on to produce it, hires a (very capable) director and then after principle photography is over the project sits unfinished because George is not happy with it and personally directs all the re-shoots himself because the director he hired (Anthony Hemingway) is no longer "available" to finish the film. Talk about back seat directing, sound familiar the corpse of Richard Maquand?
If George wanted to direct Red Tails fucking take the job and direct it.
Err back to my original point why does Lucasfilm exist? At least when they were producing shit like Howard the Duck they were at least producing and still some what relevant. Now they just seem like a production line of Star Wars glut.
With all their available resources they should be that film making utopia were some upstart could come get their little film financed and produced away from the Hollywood bogey-man. Well in actual fact those film makers are doing a better job financing their films in Hollywood. The chance may be slim to none but it's better than zero.
I think Lucas may have forgotten where he came from. He wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for Francis Ford Coppola mentoring him in his formative years but I hardly see George taking on such a role. Who's he mentoring - Rick McCallum's waistline. I hear they're doing away with the digital Jabba in Star Wars and just rotoscoping in Rick for the Blu-ray.
I think I've said my piece. It really is a shame that Lucasfilm isn't this boutique film production house, an alternate to the big Hollywood studio system. Based on Lucas' own past desires for something of the sort I don't see any reason why it couldn't be that way.
edit: Oh sorry, that just looks like a wall of text, tl;dr