Darth Lucas said:

You see, I didn't mind the excessive throwbacks to Wrath of Khan in STID. When you think about it, it was a very logical way of doing things. It's not like Khan wouldn't exist and try essentially the same thing just because the timeline shifted. He would still exist (apparently as a white guy? but i forgive that because Cumberbatch was fantastic) and still want the same things, therefore a very similar story would unfold, only things would be slightly different because of the alternate timeline. It made for an interesting movie at the very least.

And here I thought poor rationales for poor writing were limited to the prequels. *sigh*