Even then, it’s clearly not an end-of-war victory; the goal was to get what’s left of the Resistance the hell away from the FO safely, and Luke accomplished it.
No war in the history of the world was won by killing every single enemy soldier. What happened at the end of TLJ wasn’t a victory in any shape or form. The Resistance lost, but a few survived, as in any lost war. The Resistance has no allies. Everyone has turned their backs to them. If for the sake of argument the FO creates a benevolent dictatorship or perhaps even some form of democracy, the Resistance have zero change of ever rising again. So, the few Resistance members still alive have their fate lying completely in the FO’s hands. The Resistance cannot win, the only thing that can happen is for the FO to screw up.
I assumed yhwx was defining victory as realizing the goal. The Resistance is just fighting to survive the entire movie, not necessarily win. That ship sailed in like the first ten minutes because of Poe. (Rose very cheesily and unnecessarily spells out the theme: winning isn’t about fighting what you hate, it’s saving what you love). Luke wins the climax for the Resistance because all that’s left does manage to get away. And then there’s hope at the end with broom kid that people out there do still believe in the Resistance.
I agree that it wasn’t a victory in the grand scheme of a war, but that was never the point in this movie.