It's a shame the new SW trilogy is such a disappointing disaster. I really just want to ignore the First Order era, or whatever it's being called in the timeline.
On the other hand, the additional material (Clone Wars series, Rebels, Disney era Anthology films, the Mandalorian, the Jedi Fallen Order game) have been great additions to the universe in terms of both storytelling and worldbuilding.
A large reason the new trilogy falls flat for me is the lack of any real character arcs. Well, Kylo sort of had an interesting arc, and I do like that he's a darksider tempted by the light, which has rarely been seen, whereas we've often seen lightsiders tempted by the dark.
I really wanted to like the characters introduced in the new films. I liked Finn, the idea of a rogue stormtrooper wrestling with his conscience. Rey was a great set up for what could have been the most interesting character growth arc since Ahsoka Tano. Rose was a great idea, because usually we're seeing SW following the brightest, most exceptional heroes, and she's just a lower decks mechanic who steps forward to become a great hero. Only none of these characters were really given any satisfying arcs, they just sort of moved from one challenge to the next as the plot pushed them forward. I realize the SW movies have always been arguably more plot driven than character driven, but it was a fairly even balance, like I'd argue the OT is 60% plot driven & 40% character driven. The PT is more like 75% plot driven, and the new trilogy is like 90% plot driven.
The "supplemental" material that is all of the shows, games and anthology films still considered canon, are just doing a much better job (in most cases) of showing characters I actually care about and who have decent arcs. I will concede Rogue One and Solo might be more driven by member berries and fan service than any real character development, but they get a pass because they just did great jobs of building the world up.
Look at the aforementioned Ahsoka's growth from the clone Wars film/pilot to the time of Rebels. Looks at Cal Kestis' growth in Fallen Order, from insecure former Padawan, to overconfident Jedi to realizing his own limits and understanding the need to hold off on trying to rebuild the jedi order.
With the new trilogy, It's just "okay here's this set piece, alright now along to the next set piece, now the next one." Where does anyone really learn or grow? They don't, they just feel like passive actors pushed along from situation to situation.
At least in the OT, however shallow the characters may have been, they seemed to learn or develop in some way from situation to situation, and it was usually their decisions and actions that push the story along from chapter to chapter, not the story pushing them from chapter to chapter, as we see with Rey, Finn, and to lesser degree Kylo. Luke grows from naïve but adventurous farmboy to rebel squadron leader to overconfident padawan to solemn jedi knight. Han grows from self-serving rogue to a guy who cares about his friends and the greater cause. Even C3P0 has an arc of sorts in the OT. I always loved the scene when he's telling campfire stories in RotJ. Remember when he said he's not much for telling stories in ANH? It's a subtle bit of development, we see that even this irritating droid who is arguably one of the more 1-dimensional of the main cast, has himself become a more rounded individual in some way.
I'll take Ahsoka over Rey in a heartbeat. I really wish the people like Filoni who seem to really understand the universe as more than just a vast collection of member berries and potential setpieces had had some role or input in the sequel trilogy. At least some involvement in story development or something. Kathleen Kennedy is a great businesswoman and I have no doubt a large part in the success behind people like Spielberg, but as a storyteller, I'm just not sure. The management of the new trilogy has just been a disaster. It's pretty apparent there was no real outline for how they were going to develop the story and build the characters. Kennedy is a marketing wizard, but she's no storyteller. The head of Lucasfilm needs to have more control or at least understanding of how to develop the grand story. Maybe they shouldn't have the same level of control Lucas had, but we need something in the middle of Lucas and Kennedy. Perhaps Filoni would be a good candidate for the next LF head. He's been woring on the universe for a while and really does seem to understand SW in a way that pleases both the old and the new fans and provides interesting characters. Clone Wars series took a bunch of wooden characters from the PT and breathed life into them, and made them interesting. And Mandalorian shows great potential should they really take these new characters and build them in a meaningful way as the series progresses.