To me, it kinda felt like “well, we have to put a Cantina scene in the movie.” It felt shoehorned in and not necessary. Maz could’ve been based anywhere, really. Didn’t have to be a bar.
Not huge things, but I also wasn’t really a fan of 1) First Order spies being there, 2) a Resistance spy being there, and 3) Finn seeking transport with a couple guys like Ben and Luke were trying to do in ANH.
I actually thought that was a really clever way to show us that the Resistance and the First Order are on a pretty equal footing in the galaxy at this point in history. That is as apposed to the OT where the Rebels were a small group of freedom fighters, and the Empire spanned the galaxy. Now, thirty years later, they are two more or less equally sized military forces, each with their own spy-network.
(It’s also a decent plot-reason for having the Resistance show up to save the day during the FO attack.)
A seedy den crawling with spies for both sides was a thing when sound movies were new.
We might get a Casablanca planet in Star Wars yet.
All of this. One of the interesting things the movie does is take what is obviously the ANH plot template, but then fill each element with something original. And this might not even qualify as one of the copied elements - where the hell else are smugglers going to congregate and meet contacts? Their moms house? If this was a Tarantino film maybe.
Although I did almost roll my eyes when they showed the band.