I feel like we're at odds on the first point; I think that the references back to the old are a good concession and a sort of sign of humility; they're accepting that the new Star Wars was not necessarily as good as the old.

With that said, I do recognize that there is a chance that they retread the story into oblivion, with nothing of interest other than the same drama with different faces. I'm not terrified of it, because I think it's unlikely, but it is something that I will concede: the parts of the trailer that made me interested in watching the film are those that play the most homage to the old things. Hopefully my optimism is correct and the more skeptical notion that they'll devolve to fanservice is unfounded, but I concede that you could be right on this point. I don't think it's the likely outcome, but you've definitely pushed me toward doubt (of course, doubt sometimes makes the desire to see something stronger).

I do feel like Solo was squandered on the existing canon (and, by consequence, also underdeveloped, because every new and interesting endeavor it brought to the table wound up being dead-ends that amounted to nothing), though the actual original elements were fantastic. As a sort of Star Wars noir, it was fantastic (albeit maybe too colorful for the noir description), and you're definitely right in the notion that Rogue One was more compelling in many ways because we didn't know the ending (and it was freed to be truly tragic, though Solo was not a stranger to tragic form itself in many ways).

I'm worried about Disney's handling of everything, though I'm optimistic that they may have learned from the dumpster fire they've created and started walking back some of the foolishness. I don't necessarily mind the reboot of the EU, since it was getting unwieldy, but I do question the reason why they opted to instead go wholly original as opposed to following at least the highlights of the old EU (e.g. why not build on Kyle Katarn in Rogue One or Mara Jade in the sequel Trilogy)?

I don't think it's necessarily a bad decision for them, business speaking, to focus on telling stories around a familiar core cast. The problem is that even if they add in new characters or go back to existing EU characters, they might still be too conservative in their storytelling to actually make them interesting. Disney's masterful, but they're reaching what Jung might call the age of the "decrepit king" where their mastery has not been pushed further. They're no longer exceeding the masters of the previous days and moving into experimental territory (as much as they may pretend to), and the stagnation has not helped them overall.

I do agree that it's sad that Disney has pursued a much less open development of the IP. It doesn't seem to be blossoming as much as it was (or at least I'm not seeing it if it is), and that's a shame.