What you call a cash grab an executive would call “target market”. You are not going to get funding to make a sci fi show (100+ million I assume) without integrating it into some kind of pre set market that will eat it up. In that sense it’s just product market fit.

There’s nothing sci-fi in that story. It could have been set in Nazi Germany, Tsarist Russia, Qing China, or anywhere else.

Except it would need to compete on a different field, and wouldn’t fare as well.

Lol yeah getting people to see it is part of a the point, I guess?

I thought this at first, but it's arguably that Rogue One and Andor are the only Disney properties that deeply tie in to the universe. They really set up the events for the original trilogy and make them feel more filled out and real. The tone is one of sacrifice and hope, and intentionally plays as a counterpoint to the powerful space wizards in the films. It feels like the creators respect the narrative.

I have a particular distaste for rogue one, because it took a story that didn't need to be officially told, and gave it an official movie that was stupidly boring, uninteresting characters, no real value in the grand scheme of things, and generic as all hell.

"A bunch of bothans died to bring us this intel" is literally a more compelling story than rogue one.

Did you like The Last Jedi?