I agree, honestly. I didn’t particularly feel like it shrank the universe myself, but it does seem like they’re more interested in creating new designs. I’m okay with that too, but they could at least throw us a bone beyond bringing back two established characters.
That’s still two more than they brought back for ESB. All new creatures for that one 😉
We saw a lot of familiar creatures in the PT, ANH & ROTJ mainly because of Tatooine. TFA had all new worlds, just like ESB. The only two films in the saga so far that don’t feature that planet. Personally i love seeing new designs and i hope they stick with this direction.