I agree SKB should just be a base. Perhaps we could edit the exterior shots to make it a plain planet (the scale is really off, fuel oslicator is seeable from space about the size of Texas but on ground it’s the size of a football stadium).
So in this version, how would the destruction of the Hosnian system be handled? Would it be removed entirely (with perhaps the Star Destroyer shots from Restructured and a few of those changs), and only established in the crawl for TLJ?
Personally I didn’t care for the Hosnian destruction, it felt very empty, repetitive, and for such a huge event had very little impact on things. I don’t recall any mention of it in the ST besides Finn’s line in TFA, though I might be wrong.
I’d prefer to start the ST with the First Order and New Republic at war, plain and simple. The New Republic was at peace before Snoke appeared and aren’t prepared for war, leaving Leia’s small resistance all that’s left for now. Over the course of TLJ Leia’s army is picked off (while similar events happen over the galaxy) and by the end the First Order has control over most of the galaxy, leaving the Resistance all that’s left. Republic capitol isn’t important to the First Order, they probably waltz in with their far superior fleet.