If it wasn’t for Death Star 3, these reboot complaints would largely disappear I think. It’s the one extraneous plot element that spoils it for many (and takes the shine off it for me a bit too). As Lord Haseo said, many of the other similarities have been remixed enough that they feel sufficiently different, and others can be chalked down to it following the classic ‘Hero’s Journey’ formula.
Films “borrow” from each other all the time.
Good hypothetical: film XYZ has a vision for an original or at least fresh take on a story it wants to tell. It may borrow some ideas from other films, but at the same time it is understood that those creative ideas had dramatic intent behind them and they are used in the new film for the same express purposes.
Bad hypothetical: film CYA doesn’t have a clear vision for an original or at least fresh take on a story that it wants to tell. It borrows a lot from other films, or another film specifically, because that’s kind of the whole idea for making film CYA. The creative ideas that are copied and pasted from the original film were constructed in such a way that they have attached to them clear and defined dramatic intent – but in the new film CYA, they are used without regard for their original purpose. Picture a perfectly beautiful and elaborate snowman, without a flaw to it, sitting on a beach in Hawaii and not melting. They are out of place.
And to me, that’s the problem with the story in TFA. It’s not that it borrowed things from ANH. As long as it did so in moderation, I wouldn’t have a problem with it as long as it wasn’t boring and the story were well constructed. But it’s not. There’s no vision for this film, no story under the story that it wants to tell. It’s just a Star Wars ripoff. A $350 million fan film. Highly professional looking and fun, it has some life, but like it was written by amateurs.