They "could" have made a film that fit within the EU, but that would have provided a whole host of limitations. From what little we know about TFA it's already clear that they're diverging greatly from the EU.

Dropping the EU means more creative freedom and letting the filmmakers tell the story they want to tell. Is that story a good one? We can't say until Dec. 18th.

What I do know is that I don't know anything, and I think that's fantastic. There's a mystery to it all now. What's happened since ROTJ? What's going to happen? Nixing the EU opens the universe up to millions of possibilities. The excitement and wonder of seeing a new and unknown Star Wars film is back for the first time in 32 years. That certainly makes it all worth it.