Making a good star wars movie without constantly pandering to nostalgia is fully possible. George Lucas showed with the Prequels that if you are passionate about what you do, and you tell the story you want to tell then the products will at least stand on its own, and not just as a weird growth of the original.
The most fitting analogue to this is Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, compared to his Hobbit movies. And then arguably those compared to Guillermo del Toro's pitch of the Hobbit.
The Lord of the Rings was made with passion. It had a director that oversaw it, and even with the flaws the movies occasionally had the passion he and the other designers, musicians and actors had shone through.
The Hobbit is just like the Sequels highly polished, special effects carnivals. Where all the best special effects wizards in the world cannot hide the fact that the only ones with passion connected to those movies were the shareholders.
The potential Del Toro Hobbit is the Prequels in this analogy. Frmo what i have heard i am not completely sold on the movie, especially on that movie he pitched being interesting for fans of Lord of the Rings. But it would have been made by someone with passion, and would therefore elevate itself instantly above the Hobbit we got, since all the flash and good acting in the world mean nothing when shown in a soulless product.
As i mentioned before though, many of these problems boil down to the Sequels not being Star Wars, but instead being "Regiustered trademark Star Wars, property of Disney" meaning that they took absolutely no chances whatsoever, instead settling for the nostalgia pandering that is so common nowadays when the writers or directors have no passion for the work.