That was really the worst element of the EU and one of the major areas where the new Disney Canon is infinitely better
Um....are you sure you're thinking of the same EU that the rest of us are? Because when you summarize it as:
incredibly shy about adding *actually new* material, as opposed to constant recycling of *the same* movie and movie-derived material, not really expanding on it but simply rehashing the same characters along largely the same terribly cliche story lines with little to no character development, over and over and over again.
....I mean, that's your opinion and you're free to hold it, but that's also a pretty good summary of the new universe as well, in that it's a blatantly recycled empire vs rebels fight featuring such stunning new character concepts as "desert dwelling force user with a hidden connection to the villains and who was trained by the last of the old Jedi order".
As for the new VR thing, sure, maybe it's great, and we would have never seen it's like under the old system. Empire at war was also great, and we'll certainly never seen it's like in the new setting, because the nature of the new setting makes it impossible. And as good as you seem to think Vader Immortal is....does the phrase "recycling movie and movie-derived material...simply rehashing the same characters along the the same storylines" sound familiar to you?
And fundamentally, VI sounds like it has the same problem that Fallen Order and a number of other new part of the canon have, in that it's basically a massive waste of time for the players, provided
this summary is correct. You run around, do a bunch of vaguely star-warsy stuff and learn a bunch of lore that has zero relevance to anything else in any other part of the setting, in the midst of a plot that has potential to change the course of the saga, and then events unfold that force the plot to proceed as it always was and make your efforts moot, and then you quietly vanish from the setting never to been seen again. Woooo.
Like, even the force unleashed managed to do better than that, and like 50% of that game was just a unrepentant power fantasy about letting you run around as this massive edgelord, shooting people with force lighting and not be the bad guy (or at least the bad-est guy). You got to at least participate in something that would shape later events, you got to have an impact on the setting. Force Unleashed had you help form the rebel alliance. Vader Immortal lets you trash Vader's living room a bit.