But he never followed the story that was laid out for him.
The main point of FA was a search for Luke as a mythical hope. He's starts the TLJ with he's not interested, and barely helps the whole movie-and then kills him. Why spend a whole movie looking for him then.
Capitalize on the loss of Han Solo, those are rare chances-Luke didn't care at all.
The FA builds up the power and mystique of Anakan/Vader and Luke's lost light saber-he tosses it.
TLD doesn't build on Phasma-kills her with no story, Snoke-kills him with no story, even Rey waste scenes finding she is nobody.
Rey doesn't grow at all.
Kylo has to crush his "ridiculous" mask, and now is a weak regular man as the main villain left.
Agree upper management indeed let TLD proceed with a green light.