@winterssuicide should NOT read anymore SPOILERS!

Yeah, that's basically what happened. And that's why Rian Johnson didn't want to do episode 9. He saw what was coming. It all started with Michael Arndt, who only got half the story done over a year and a half. Kennedy handed over what he had to Abrams. But Abrams dragged his feet then turned to his usual formula. Right before the actors needed a script he rushed it out in 2 or 3 weeks by heavily rehashing ANH. Then added some of Arndt's story (the map to Luke part). Then put his own originality in by creating a bunch of his mystery box that he had no idea or plan where it was going.

TFA was successful because of fans desperately starved to see the OT style returned. And fans sucked in by Abrams mystery box questions. Unsuspecting that none of these questions had answers outlined. So Abrams dumped all of that in Johnson's lap and expected him write a story that answers all of it in 6 months or less. And handle directing responsibilities. And some of the questions were not easy things to answer and keep married to the lore.

Abrams just simply created them because he knew they would stir fans with fanfic speculation and draw them in, waiting for answers with no intention of ever giving it. That's the way his creation of mystery box works. Abrams has even commented on it (paraphrasing) "It's not important what's inside the box, or that it's ever discovered. What's important is that you keep people wondering."

So again, Johnson passed the buck to Abrams in episode 9. But in the process ruined the chance of some of Abrams mystery box ever leading to any answers (such as Snoke). And Abrams is likely to screw fans over again in episode 9 because he has a reputation of never answering his mystery box questions anyway. No reason to think that he would start now.