Yeah people pine for the old EU canon (Legends, as it's now called?) but the content that placed itself way after RoTJ got really bizarre. Not happy with the Sequel Trilogy's handling of the universe either, but I don't know if movie-goers would have been able to stomach something like the whole Mara Jade plot or Yuzahn Vong War.

>how close it ended up getting to the larger plot of the last couple Frank Herbert Dune books.

My understanding is that Sci-Fi writing for established franchises during the 80s - 90s was kind of a small circle of people. The influence would have been unavoidable. And they also often wrote for multiple franchises too.