Any other thoughts? Disagreements?
Just one. I'm not sure I agree with your very first example:
Did Lando really need to own the Falcon before Han?
Personally, I don't really have a problem with this one. ["That's just because you're a mindless GL-hating prequel-basher!", cry the Lucas apologists in furious rejoinder.] The reason? Because the way ESB is written, Lando's entrance into the storyline is entirely contingent on having a prior relationship with Han. So that kind of overlap isn't bad, IMO; it's no more a matter of universe-shrinkage than, say, Obi-Wan having a prior relationship with Yoda earlier in the film ["Luke...you will go to the Dagobah system...] So we're dealing with a separate phenomenon than, say, this:
Anakin building 3PO. Unneeded connection.
...wherein two completely separate characters established twenty years earlier with no background connection, implicit or otherwise, are suddenly fused together in such a way that credulity is stretched to the breaking point. If this kind of thing happened only once (like the first time we see it in the "I am your father" relationship established in ESB)...well, ok then. It's a bit too conveniently coincidental, but maybe they can get away with one such connection without jettisoning all suspension of disbelief.
But then things start compounding. Luke is Leia's brother. Vader is 3p0's "maker," and he also knew Greedo as a child. Chewie and Yoda are old friends. Lil' Boba Fett once fired Slave 1's superlaser cannons at Obi-Wan. FFS! The entire "Star Wars" saga now begins to resemble remarkably poorly-written fanfiction, with cheap, shallow fanwankery shoehorned into the series at an accelerated rate of speed, presumably to make up for the absence of this little thing I like to call a "plot."
So anyway, all that to say that I completely agree with everything you said, save for the Lando/Han connection. And I share your frustration as well. Personally, I think one of the more offensive cases is the Luke/Leia sibling relationship. [See, Lucas apologists? "Bashers" are critical toward the OT, too.] That being said, at least the execution of said sibling relationship was handled better than most all of the universe-shrinking in the PT.