It’s not that the directors don’t care, but they don’t have the leverage necessary to put their own stamp on each film. It’s micromanaged to death. What you wind up with is a safe product that lacks depth. As much as Marvel films might be more successful at it, they are still very safe offerings that operate inside a very strict set of parameters.
More importantly, people need to understand that making a great film does not happen in a vacuum. It’s not a paint by numbers exercise as much as studios might want it to be. There are so many moving pieces that it’s impossible to predict with any great certainty how a project will turn out and how it will be received by an audience.
This makes directors who consistently turn out great product all the more impressive.
In short, I think people underestimate two things in regards to Star Wars. 1) How much of a miracle the originals were 2) How impossible it is to catch that same lightning in a bottle again.
Any cinephile should check out the DePalma doc. It’s awesome. He touches on some of the things I have mentioned here, but his stories are much more interesting than mine.