What was the point of the asteroid field in Empire? You can cut it out and just have Han and Leia go to Bespin and fall in love there.

Finn had to have his arc in the 2nd movie for he was not a Rebel yet at the end of the first movie, even though Han was a rebel yet at the end of the first movie.

Why was Finn not a rebel at the end of the first movie? For there was already way too much stuff in The Force Awakens, you were cramming too much movie into too little time and thus TFA suffers because of it. Now not everyone realizes TFA suffers because of this, because JJ did so much nostalgia in TFA that some people were just happy and estatic because of this. But watch TFA more than once and you will either be more critical for there is too much stuff in TFA in too little time, and the flow of the story is off. Or you become more appreciative for the exact same reason for even though the flow of the story is off they were able to cram so much in a short little time and removing stuff would remove something at least some fans / groups the movie was targeted to would resonate with.

Who is The Force Awakens for? Is it for people who saw the original 1977 movie 40 years ago? The people who grew up in the 90s and 00s and thus saw the VHS box set, special editions, and the Prequels as their first star wars experience? Or is it people who are new to the series as fresh 8 year olds who want to watch a movie about loud noises, color lights, space wizards, and boys and girls doing cool stuff?

The Last Jedi was "free" to actually tell a movie in a way The Force Awakens was not able to be. The Force Awakens is a theme park, The Last Jedi is a deconstruction story like many middle movies of a trilogy are.

Now trust me I have problems with The Last Jedi but including those 2 "unnecessary" things were necessary for the story, or you had to have similar story events to get Finn where he needed to be, and an obstacle to provide tension for many of the characters in the 2nd movie and that was the slow space chase.

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Am I going to like the last movie of the trilogy? Who knows, I will find out in the weeks or months ahead.

I would not be surprised I dislike it though, for sometimes Abrams is B+ / A- in my book and sometimes he is a C. And it is not just the director but these stories are created by committee and not a committee that takes its time and works in harmony but instead a mis-mash of chaos that does not care if the story flows or not flows.

[The MCU has its faults but hey Kevin Feige actually gets this stuff, it is about synchronization not just the story flow to get a consistent product that the viewers resonate with. But it is also synchronizing the logistics of filming and he has created a supply chain of logistics where they can disect a movie, film it, and then via editing reassembling multiple teams together to create a movie. And then you via editing you create multiple movies to tell a semi-coherent franchise story. Some people are good at this logistics stuff and some people aren't. It is a wonderful talent if you have it.]