I'm not the first, the last, or only one, thinking that the whole "franchise reboot" thing is just a sort of sad and maybe slightly pathetic nostalgia trip. You have this image of 40 year old men (& women), in their rec rooms playing with their treasured "light sabers."
Folks wanting to experience again what they experienced when they were young and impressionable. We want our Pop Culture to tell us that we are still young, we are still relevant, we want the new and exciting, but we want it to be new exciting just like the previous experience was new and exciting. New and improved, but not essentially different at all.
If we can hold onto that initial experience, and rekindle it and experience it again, it's sort like a Pop Culture fountain of youth. A celebration of the initial joy and innocence. Again and again. It's sort of ridiculous, but if every one you know is experiencing the same exact thing, it can't be bad, right?
Any one who points out the silliness of it all, is just out of step and just doesn't get it, and is a first class spoil-sport. And if you actually attack the whole franchise head on like Ryan Smith, you are a heretic! They burn heretics! Be careful Ryan Smith! It is a dangerous game to tell the Emperor that he is buck naked!