Exactly. That’s why several of them were cut - because they no longer fit with the structure of the film as it was shaped in the edit bay.
Rian insists that the caretaker scene was cut because Luke was too much of a jerk in it, and he thought it was better to go from Luke and Rey starting to understand each other into the hand touching scene rather than them being at each other’s throats at the time, but I think the restructuring was another big reason for that scene being lost, too.
That’s not quite what he said in the commentary though, it wasn’t that Luke was a jerk it was more about wanting to see Luke and Rey make some progress whereas the caretaker scene happens right after Rey declares that she won’t fail him. So it was more like changing it up so that every scene didn’t end with Luke being a disappointment, and which made they fact that she leaves hurt even more.
Not sure if restructuring played into it so much as pacing.
I thought he said it was a bit of both, but mostly that without the scene it appears Luke and Rey were making progress before the hand-holding scene, and with the scene it seems like their relationship had fallen apart even more (because of Luke being a jerk).
I dunno, maybe I didn’t pay enough attention or interpreted what he said slightly differently. I’ll definitely have to give the commentary another listen. I may also be culling from an EW interview about it or something.