As I said, empty filler to bind the crap together.
Even if it were filler (somehow) how does that make the plot not about Luke? If so what the hell is the plot about? I know it isn’t about blowing up SKB because that was pretty much skipped over.
IMO the plot was about finding Luke, the main problem though is the empty filler consisting of:
-Han’s freighter
-Maz’s Cantina
-The Starkiller Base
The movie started out strong with a concise goal, but after escaping Jakku the movie makes a turn downwards. If those 3 sections of the movie were cut out you’d have plenty of space to do anything else with, for instance having Luke actually in the movie doing stuff. It’s like in TPM were the movie stops for a pod race, or the mostly useless speeder chase in the beginning of ATOC. George wasted so much time in the 1st 2 prequels he had to cover a lot of bases in ROTS making for an overall mediocre PT, and that’s on top of all the other things wrong with them.
I could go into detail about all the other things wrong with TFA, but this thread has enough lists and walls of texts in it all ready. I am still pissed that they promoted the practical effects so much, only for them to be mediocre at best compared to what was accomplished 30+ years ago. Overall effects wise TFA is just another Hollywood CG wankfest to me, and I think the lack luster practical effects were just an excuse to not bother with them in VIII.