On the subject of there being many differing edit ideas that don’t converge –

Well, that’s the thing with character-driven movies (TLJ) instead of plot-driven ones (TFA)

It’s much harder to pinpoint exactly what’s “important” to the story because… the story is driven by the characters going through an evolution. Not much has changed after TLJ really, which is why so many people disliked it. It felt like a TV Series episode instead of a saga movie (they did hire a TV director to do it)

So what to cut, what stays? Gotta be careful with that because every character’s going through an arc in TLJ, and cutting parts can mess up their arcs. And without meaningful character arcs, this movie is mostly empty because the plot is sooooo thin, it’s barely existant in fact! But at the same time, we have to cut stuff because it’s bloated, so really it becomes a game of who to prioritize?

I think most people here can agree on which characters need to be prioritized and which can have their arcs, let’s say, “minimized”.