Well, what did you expect them to do? The new movie had to be set ~30 years after ROTJ, meaning if they kept the EU as is, they'd have been dropping new viewers - the vast majority of whom haven't read a single bit of EU material - into the story somewhere after the end of the New Jedi Order series. That's a lot of story to try to catch new viewers up on, with a lot of new characters.
It's better for them to start fresh, and not have to worry about not contradicting a bunch of existing material that, frankly, contradicted itself all the time anyway. Besides, Lucas always said that the post-ROTJ EU wasn't what his post-ROTJ vision was either, and the sequel trilogy is based on his outlines.
It's not "all about the $$$$$$$$," it's about starting with a clean slate to give us the best possible Episodes VII-IX they can without having to force them in with existing continuity that will just confuse 95% of the audience.