They're trying to feed off of the legacy of the originals to generate more cash.
Which is actually fine if you can live up to them and produce films with the same tone (grungy dystopian space western!), level of engaging storytelling, enthralling characters and character chemistry. They created some fine characters with substance and chemistry, but the storytelling particularly has fallen a fair bit below the bar set by the OT. Mainly due to lack of originality, and a lack of progression of said characters. And meanwhile they've killed the more beloved original characters off in ways that don't do justice to their greatness. I bet if you leave everything about TLJ intact but just make the change of Luke living and kicking First Order ass in the film, most fans come away much more forgiving of it.
If Disney continues in the same direction as they're headed, which is some visually appealing mordern sci-fi popcorn films that happen to have the SW name attached to them, then it's best to go off in a whole new direction, different time period, etc, and leave the ties to the superior originals behind. Maybe Solo can flesh out his character in ways that don't tarnish the way we see him in the OT, but it's more likely that it raises eyebrows among fans and doesn't really feel like Han Solo but a reimagined version of him that tries to tie in as a believable prequel but doesn't really sell anybody that it actually happened and preceded the OT events. My guess, at least.
I don't dislike any of the films, to be clear. But if you're putting the SW name on it and borrowing the characters from the OT, then make it SW through and through. Otherwise go explore another corner of the vast galaxy, which hopefully they are doing after IX.
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