Butting my head in here to say a big heck yes to dislike how small they make the SW universe and strange compulsion to tie in every little thing to the OT, because that whole thing has bugged me for so long now. Why, in an entire galaxy of infinite potential, do we keep getting stories only about the same group of people?

And it's a very good point about Poe's talking back to Ren, I hadn't thought about it quite like that but even for us as viewers, Ren's threat and presence is immediately lowered. It feels like exactly the opposite of how Vader was presented.