I guess I’m still trying to wrap my head around how you could possibly remove the Starkiller base weapon from the plot. The entire idea of the Resistance attacking the base is to destabilize the weapon and potentially destroy the planet, which makes sense if the weapon is the planet. But if the First Order merely has a base on the surface of an ice world, how would the planet be destroyed?

I was toying with the idea in my Starlight edit that the base could also be a Star Forge, using the energy of the sun to create fleets of Imperial vessels. Something like that would differentiate it from the Death Star and allow this idea of a base that builds starships:

The last of the Jedi has
vanished. In his absence,
a secret Imperial Order
has completed construction
of a fortress that can
devour entire stars.

Harnessing this power to
rebuild their once-mighty
starfleet, this emboldened
FIRST ORDER launches
a devastating attack on
the capitol planets of the
New Republic.

Escaping the destruction,
only one general salvages
a desperate RESISTANCE,
and sends a pilot in search
of the long-lost Jedi,
guardian of peace and
justice in the galaxy…

There would need to be a lot of changes to the Resistance briefing scene, where they talk about the hyperlighspeed weapon, and of course cutting the Hosnian destruction and every instance of the ‘weapon’ being recharged. Perhaps we see the sun getting drained again early in the movie, and this continues throughout with the implication that the First Order is constructing new ships inside the planet.