The Luke scene is very important. Rian’s excuses for cutting it make no sense.
I missed why you’re opposed to cutting to Leia as was intended?
Cutting to Leia would dictate that I would need to cut back to Luke and Rey before the fleet is attacked. Without committing to re-adding 2 or 3 deleted scenes that all rely on each other, that would make for a very quick, abrupt transition back to the island.
This is part of the reason I advocate for a restructuring to include most of the deleted first act Finn stuff - it makes it easier to keep the Luke scene, and helps balance the film with so little Canto Bight and, by extension, so little Finn.