I feel like Space Whales worked for me as well as they did because their intro seemed like such a useless episode, that no one would ever let you forget about as an example of the show’s low points. I would have forgotten about the episode had it not been the poster boy for the “too much filler” criticism. To see them play a pivotal part of the story’s conclusion was a lot of fun.

As for the Ezra and Ahsoka being around during the OT; I’m fine with it because Ezra and Thrawn are pretty much M.I.A in a part of the universe literally called the Unknown Regions. They might as well not exist because they’ve essentially been taken out of the known galaxy, uncharted space, and presumably without a way to get back.

Ahsoka is a little harder to get around, but they’ll probably explain it.