Definitely could have gone a lot of different ways, and many of them would have been much better imho. That being said, no doubt JJ handed him a writing hard mode plot thread.

Make an interesting, compelling, convincing reason why a classic hero’s journey arch type would call it quits. Not an easy thing to do. And it definitely contributed to the problems.

(though when Mark Hamil was telling Rian he fundamentally disagrees with Rian’s interpretation of the character, it’s hard to say he didn’t have fair warning)