Regardless of what you feel about TFA you should try to make time to watch this video.
A formula was used, sure, but there’s still a whole movie script of difference between just using a scene-progression formula and Abrams’ approach of making TFA a total micro and macro element amalgamation of previous SW notes.
ESB’s concept is not a wannabe ANH, nor RotJ’s a wannabe ESB or ANH. TFA is halfway to being just an alternative presentation for the synopsis of SW OT, and is largely a wannabe of the moments from the OT.
But that’s not what I take issue with most, regarding TFA, which how doing this micro and macro OT element amalgamation in TFA formed irreconcilable story elements which don’t add up in meaning looking back to the OT, and which the OT doesn’t seem to lend support towards in TFA.
A person who watches the films casually, or for just a general vibe is more prone to accepting the OT and TFA as being equal, because they’re only looking at the surface appearance. Someone who senses and considers the greater meaning of what’s presented in OT will probably find TFA to be incongruous in ways.
I think that the deeper meaning which a person senses as they consider anything is what is value. So when TFA contradicts what OT added up to, I don’t think citing that represents a sentimental inability by OT diehards to accept TFA. I think that’s rather having the sensibility to remember the authentic pinnacle of SW and not letting that goodness go for the sake of riding the surface of a newer flash. TFA bought a map guide to visit as a tourist the landmarks which were earlier marked during an adventurous trailblazing that was for the sake of delivering a powerful message.
Also, these are separate trilogies, created by different minds and at different periods of time. That’s not a criticism, but it comes through in the presented stories, and they just don’t work as one constant body of SW: If the OT is fully accepted as presented, then, within the brain of the person who accepts them, some things about TFA have to be False. And if TFA is accepted as presented, then some things about the OT have to be False. So if the OT is, in full, canon, then TFA is non-canon, but it works as fanfic, or an alternative take, or however someone wants to phrase it. To me, the GOUT is SW, its first and strongest statement, and everything else has been trying to work to be a part of that, though missing its standard by various measurements.
That applies even to the SE OT, which is essentially Lucas second-guessing the original statement of SW. Second-guesses are weakness, different than what is re-considering, and the edits in the SEs present as second-guessing.
I think it’s entirely possible to make something that does fully work, even though such an accomplishment is rare to find in film-making (or other artistic endeavor), and that Abrams nailed some of the things that would be required for this feat - but that TFA is incongruous with the considerations that the OT amounts to.