The new article answers the question about creative freedom: Lucasfilm did give some feedback , but allowed Ron to make exactly the game he wanted to make. Great.
The presence of a casual mode is a very good sign. It means the game will be hard! Yay! (Some mixed signals about this from Dave: he said that it won’t be as hard as it was back then. Then again, it seems he is only talking about the unfair part.) Everything they said is compatible with RTMI being as hard as TWP!