I never liked it in the expanded universe stuff either, but it is still done infinitely better there than in the films, it's the constant Star Wars obsession with legacy being an albatross around the neck.
I prefer ROTJ to be the end of the mythology overall honestly, Luke Skywalker by saving his father and embracing emotion as a tenet of things, finally puts an end to the Jedi and Sith dogmas as we know them.
Having a purely military fascistic adversary after that like Thrawn does make some sense, cleaning up the remains of the Galactic Empire, but further Jedi and Sith stuff's just pure wank to get the lightsabers out.
The Rogue One Vader hallway for one example; it is this exemplified in a single scene, it goes against every rule of the way the internal logic of the universe works but they did it because "look lightsaber!"