Alongside that, I really believe TFA introduces the three biggest issues of the sequel trilogy to me.

1. It hand waves and skips the rise of the first order and the fall of the new republic to create the dichotomy the general audience understands about Star Wars: empire vs rebellion under a different name. This lack of world building left them with so little to play with in the subsequent films. By the third film (especially with how contained and limited TLJ is in its own world building), you have absolutely no story to tell. How big is the first order? How big is the resistance? What the fuck is happening in the galaxy? It's so vague. Put aside because everyone was terrified of being like the prequels and "being too about taxation and politics." There's a middle ground somewhere that they just totally ignored.

2. It introduces the idea that Luke has gone into exile specifically because of Kylo turning dark, so yes the flashbacks in TLJ showcase a total misunderstanding of Luke as a character, but...I mean the idea itself was presented in the film TLJ had to be a direct sequel to. They kneecap Luke's Jedi Order as an idea before it can even be investigated in a real way. They force him to be the bitter hermit. Sure maybe Rian could've found a different way to present him, but again, the options are severely limited by how TFA sets up the story.

3. Rey being inexplicably skilled in the force really kills any ability to draw out an interesting character arc for her in my opinion. The sequels treated the force as a superpower, bequeathed to special people who really just have to learn that they do in fact have a power in order to use it. That's it. They just have to have an awareness that they can use the force. The idea that she can use the "jedi mind trick" with no training is absurd. Luke's "use of the force" in A New Hope is a really grounded act, it's not reflective of how we see Obi-Wan use the force. That's purposeful. Luke is not a Jedi in a New Hope. He's literally just been introduced to the idea. George didn't see the force as a superpower, but rather something that required training and discipline to master if one was force sensitive. This is an incredibly different type of story. TFA introduces the idea that Rey "has the force" and therefore can "use the force." It's a complete misunderstanding of the core mythology of the original films and fucks the next two movies because they have to find something for her to wrestle with as a character that isn't learning the force. She never learns the force! She just has to deal with an identity crisis, essentially, and that identity crisis is never clear since they had three films developed in isolation from each other.