Bingowings said:
The plot beats would still be very similar to ANH but making them look different would mask the similarity.
To people who have seen STAR WARS once sure but to people who know the film like we do will see through it.
Clearly a choice was made to make the similarity more obvious for branding purposes.
The entire film was designed to cater to both new/casual and life long fans. It was definitely a higher up who wanted this to happen; I doubt JJ and Kasdan initially wrote the script with paying homage in mind.