And how is TFA any different?
Though I recognize TFA is not exactly like ANH, unlike for the PT it took references and rehashed plot points to the extreme. There are visual references everywhere, and they are much more evident than in the PT (like Jakku looking exactly like Tatooine).
To this, there are WAY more rehashed plot points, and this time for no actual reason at all:
-a droid carries important data;
-the one who got the data, later gets captured (were they trying to compare Poes’s journey to Leia’s? For what reason? 😄 )
-the droid gets on a desert planet that looks almost exactly like Tatooine;
-the main protagonists have to escape this planet while chased by the empire/FO;
-the Falcon is caught in a tractor beam;
-the old man examines the droid’s data (for what reason Han has to mirror Ben?);
-the empire/FO is lead by a hooded darkside user;
-they have to destroy the DS/SKB, destroying its weak spot;
-but they first have to shut down its shield generator;
-one of the main charcters is captured AND interrogated EXACTLY in the same base they were to destroy (don’t tell me J.J. wanted to mirror Rey’s journey to Leia’s, again for what reason? 😄 );
-the old man is killed by the main villain (again, why Han has to mirror Ben?);