First of all, the SW franchise has been 'tainted with greed' since the summer of 1977, when it became this unexpected gargantuan phenomenon (though film industry insiders had been predicting doom because of all the production woes). No one holds a gun to your head to buy any of the merchandise.
The prequels are bad because no one else could realistically approach George and tell him his scripts were weak. He'd become so synonymous with Star Wars, and so overwhelmingly THE FACE of the franchise, that he had absolutely no realistic mechanism for feedback. Partly his own hubris, partly his own lifelong battle to feel 'in control' of his work. Whatever the cause, it created the perfect storm for mediocrity. He had broken with the producer of Episodes IV and V (Gary Kurtz) over the direction he wanted for ROTJ in 1982. Kurtz thought it a mistake to employ a second Death Star in the film, and was not enamored of what he called 'the teddy bear picnic' and overly happy ending. This presaged everything else that would come to pass in an even less satisfying fashion with the storytelling in the prequels.
I think everyone involved wants TFA to be special, and I know for damn sure that JJ feels enormous pressure to deliver something worthy of the classic trilogy, as does Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper) who is writing and directing Episode VIII. I'm willing to give this a chance, because all of the signs are positive. They want to deliver a tangible world, have some great talent in tow, and they understand what went wrong with Ep. I-III.
Calling it a giant commercial enterprise solely because of Disney's involvement is laughable, though. It's been that way for 38 years since the summer of '77.
