Oh and also, keep in mind that the GOUT is widely believed to have been released in response to the prevalence of laserdisc transfer bootlegs in circulation. Now with fan preservations like Despecialized and SSE making the news, more pressure is on now than it was even then to do something about it.
I don’t think you’re reaching at all, because whenever I watch The Force Awakens, nothing about the whole movie reminds me of the prequels at all, except for when Maz Kanata says and I paraphrase “I’ve seen evil take many forms. The Sith, The Empire, today, it is The First Order.”
I don’t think the Sith line was directly prequel-related. I get what you’re saying though. The only part that made me think of the prequels was the “clone army” mention.