They could've, but clearly there was a mandate that affected everything about the construction of the movie -- "safe". Pure fan service. An apology. It's also why we perhaps see more practical effects and sets and props and costumes and alien masks than you'd normally expect to see in a movie of this sort these days. Fan service... And I love it.
I didn't like the death star 3 stuff either, I felt it was completely unnecessary, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the movie and "feeling the magic".
I don't feel like George took a shot at something [with the prequels] and missed the mark. He's simply a bad film maker. There's something about him that just doesn't "get it". The movies are awful. And his tampering with the original trilogy, adding shitty CG in? like.. what the fuck? Even 13 year old me was like "the fuck is this, george? why is a goofy cartoon alien with lipstick sharing the same reality as those other actual aliens?"