I view it as a commercial issue involving effective transmission of valuable goodwill and reputattion (given what I am, that is inevitable). There are very prudent commercial reasons to have given the ring to a person already in the GLC mythos, which I can't be bothered going into.
DC are probably making the same mistake with Firestorm. Irrespective of whether the new Firestorm is a balck guy or a white guy.
) Green Lantern. Batman covers the sidekick thing, and if you want a connection to the mythos, read Flash or Green Arrow. Or, conversely, switch to Marvel. The fact is, people were losing interest in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern of the fifties/sixties/seventies/eighties. Next to Superman and Batman, he was the longest running hero in publication, and his character varied pretty well week to week. Sales were ebbing, and DC did what they had to to revitalize the franchise. They gave us a nineties Green Lantern. Hoorah.