I know basically nothing about this game but I'm completely burned out on the Ubisoft open world model of a huge map completely littered with mindless collectible junk and grindy side-quests. Is there reason to hope that this will be different than the same junk Assassin's Creed and Far Cry have been pushing out, or are most expecting the same thing in a Star Wars setting?

I'm skeptical, but not enough to write it off completely just yet. Definitely skeptical enough to not preorder, though.

You should never preorder games anyway, you should always wait for actual customer reviews to back up what the big reviewers say