Force Awakens was progressive because JJ got a bunch people who weren't just white dudes to play roles on all sides without having to make such a big deal about it either, just having characters being like any other SW character. It was all the manbabies who made a big deal out of it with things like Rey having powers and Finn being a black storm trooper. The movie actually had more women and other non white dudes spread across the entire movie than Last Jedi did.

Last Jedi did "progression" in a obnoxious way. First it thought it was a great idea to regress the First Order by seemingly having so many of them white dudes again which made me go "huh?"

Then next it thought it was a good idea to use up 1/3 of a the movie's runtime just to try and be preachy to it's audience by saying things like "child slavery is bad, rich people are bad, etc" while simultaneously not actually doing anything with it. That whole subplot was pointless outside also trying to use it as some stupid Star Wars kids commercial, and it was obnoxious we wasted so much time on such pointless idiocy.

Speaking about that subplot, there was also the way both Finn and the Rose characters' were handled. Finn was regressed to just being some stupid love interest to the point John Boyega openly hates the way his character was written in that movie and had to beg JJ to please progress his character. As for Rose, well she already didn't have much character outside of trying to lecture the audience then ending it on that stupid move on Crate where she nearly kills both herself and Finn, actually dooming the rebels even more just so she can give him a kiss. Again, done in a obnoxious way that didn't do her characters any favours.

Then there was Rey where Rian thought the best way to be "progressive" with her was to get rid of all the interesting things about her (her backstory and learning the ways of the Force) and instead saddle her with some stupid Twilight storyline.

Then Laura Derns' character. Put her in a military position just to have her go "You want to know my plan? I'll never tell". Then find out she had a secret evacuation plan the entire time. Which makes no sense she'll be keeping it a secret because don't people need to know about a evacuation plan in order to properly evacuate? Then she just kills herself.

The only one who was actually done not too bad was Leia because having Force powers I thought it was a good continuity from ROTJ. Only issue was that when I first saw the movie, I was waiting the whole movie to get some background detail on her Force powers. Basically going "hey movie, can you give us a little details when Leia acquired these Force powers. You're already boring me to death with both the Casino planet and this boring chase storylines which is already taking up 2/3 of the movie runtime, can we try and get something interesting onscreen? No? You're not going to bother to explain any of this?"

That's essentially the difference between JJ and Rian trying to be progressive. JJ does is in a way that's entertain and progresses the story and characters.

Rian does it in a obnoxious way where instead he's going to use up tons of the movie runtime on a boring subplot centered on female characters that he portrays as a bunch of idiots. And the ones who aren't idiots, they essentially get the interesting storylines basically erased. It's like Rian wanted to impress Kathleen Kennedy, but also doesn't know how to write interesting women in the slightest.