Yeah it seemed like the directors for the Disney sequel movies mainly cared about their directing credits and careers rather than continuing Lucas and crew’s original story. (You raised good points that yes, the OT was a collaborative effort while the PT wasn’t the same collaborative effort. Still Lucas was heavily involved on the core six films at least.)

The same argument can be applied to The Mandalorian. It is a show about an original character that didn’t even appear in the movies. It seems easier, with more creative freedom, to write an original character, but there’s more effort put into them to appeal to an audience that isn’t familiar to them. If the audience isn’t drawn to that original character, it’s on the creator to make it so. Meanwhile an established character has expectations but the writer just needs to be consistent and in character. Already there is a fan base for that character and established source material. For some writers, they may have an easier time staying true to the source material. So it really depends.