Excellent point, I totally agree.
We got a poorly written Holdo instead, closest thing to a strong older female character... I think she shoots a blaster... once?
Only older woman doing action in a recent major movie I can think of is Sarah Connor.
Brought back Ford for another Indi movies, that whole series with Liam Neeson, all of the Expendables movies, etc.
But yeah, the voice and face morph tech was basically available, they could have used Hamil and Fisher for the lines and most of the acting (you know, CGI and/or stunt doubles for the more intense action scenes same as basically every actor over 50 other than Tom Cruise), just maybe de age their voices and faces a tad to be set more proximally after 6, and focus more on her training, grand tragedy of her and han and Jacen becoming Caedus...
There is absolutely enough established lore there that could be worked into a trilogy focusing on the growth of Leia, showcasing a strong mother and warrior and diplomat/leader.
It is honestly completely baffling to me still that they threw out the EU. Sure, not all the plot lines are great, but they could have gone in so many directions with it.
I had always assumed the obvious problem with making a new trilogy would be:
Ok, we have so, so much established canon to work with, what parts of it can we focus on or interweave and tweak a bit to tell precisely the kind if story we want?
But nope, they just fucking binned it all.