I've always disagreed with this idea. If you were going to kill Han, the place to do it was The Empire Strikes Back, around the carbon freezing bit. The rescue at the start of this film means then killing him would have rendered that bit pointless. As it stands, I quite like his demise in The Force Awakens. It works better there, dramatically.

There's enough tragedy in Return of the Jedi with the death of Yoda and the (redeemed) Vader as it is. And yes, I'm still unrepentantly pro-Ewok. They underline the entire point of the saga, ie underdog triumph of courage, imagination, etc over impossible odds, faceless technology, David and Goliath style. The Ewoks are entirely in keeping with the Star Wars ethos, even if they do eat people for dinner.