I get what you're saying. On a related note, I never understood why they tried so hard, torturously hard, to connect so many unconnected characters. Why, why the fuck, why in the name of all that is holy, did Yoda somehow know Chewbacca (in ep 1, I believe). You're right that George ran out of good ideas. I guess he was playing to the "omg I recognize them" crowd for the cheapest of thrills. Chewy has nothing to do with anything besides the millenium falcon.
Ever watched the Star Wars Christmas Special? I saw it when it aired. Until the advent of the Internet I thought I'd imagined it. It's a terrible, horrible, bizarre thing but it starts out by hanging out with the Chewbacca family. That was before Empire. That was 5 years before Jedi. Yet back then, you could see the impending crazy that was Lucas. In retrospect it's obvious, but at the time it was presumed that Lucas had nothing to do with it and the craziness was all network. Not so much.