Re: First Order didn't learn anything from the Empire....
Let's recall what we know so far.
They have two objectives, being over seen by both a Secular commander (Hux) and a Spiritual Commander (Kylo). First objective, destroy the Republic and second, destroy the forces of the Light Side.
Hux accomplishes his objective.
The entire star system that makes up the Republic is wiped out in this movie. Mission Accomplished George Bush. That's no small feat. It goes by quickly in the film because they get greedy and are trying to take out the small Rebellion forces as well, but the Rebellion are not a central government - they have effectively destabilized the Galaxy once again. Yes he lost their biggest toy, but unlike Tarkin he survived the battle and can now shift toward stomping out the Rebellion. Or he can take over more systems and re-instate an Empire... Their end goalie unclear here, but I don't see this as a "loss" for them at all.
The other objective, to eliminate the Light, is partially successful- the Jedi academy is wiped out. The only remaining member is Luke Skywalker, which Kylo and the Knights of Ren are currently hunting in our film. Did Kylo lose this objective? I'd argue not really... Snoke still gets what he wanted, which is to complete Kylo's decent into the Dark side. What Vader failed to do - what the Empire failed - was to fully fall to the Dark side and conquer his sentimentality. Which Kylo has managed to do, when he killed Han. It makes him that much stronger to take out Luke, which is what Snoke has sent his crew out to accomplish.
It's all pretty menacing... The one seeming wrench is "the awakening" that Snoke did not foresee, Rey coming to her own realization and power (another "Skywalker"), and just like Sidious, Snoke seems to want her presumably to currupt and train as well... So we shall see if he learned from that particulAr mistake, or will history actually show him fail in this regard