Yeah, I think the wording of the TLJ crawl (and the TFA crawl) could have been done a little differently to clarify the situation better.
I like to think that even though the FO is only a fraction of the size of the old empire (and looks like putting a lot of their money into projects, like SKB and the Supremacy, and upgrading old Empire tech rather than just being at the same unit size of the Galactic Empire), they’re extremely organized and have planned for this moment for years.
With the New Republic, I picture it as if the attack on Pearl Harbor was more successful.
The whole issue with the New Republic was that they didn’t want to create a large standing army like the Galactic Republic had at the outbreak of the Clone Wars, because they felt it gave the centralized government so much authority that it allowed the Republic to become a totalitarian regime in the first place. They understandably feared that happening again, and thought their biggest threat was long gone.
The New Republic did have their own defense force, but nowhere near the scale of the Clone Wars era Republic or the Empire. The New Republic was set up to rely more on the defense forces of the different planetary systems within their government, rather than have its own huge military.
And although they did take out a significant portion of the New Republic fleet, the most important thing was that they also destroyed their leadership.
So while all of combined defense forces of the different Republic worlds might be larger than the FO, they are disorganized and now more worried about defending their own worlds against this military junta that’s united and prepared. It’s a divide and conquer strategy.
That’s why Leia and Luke are such a threat to them. The idea of the Jedi could reunite the galaxy, and Leia knows that.
So I kind of wish that was more of the wording of the opening crawl, not that all of the ships in the entire Republic were destroyed, but the destruction of the Senate basically divided whatever forces were left into disarray.
So to me, I think the elements are there, but them being afraid of delving into politics really hurt the clarification of the situation. And I think proper opening crawls, a deletion of a line or two, and maybe the addition of one or two deleted scenes of Leia could’ve helped address some questions people had.
And from what I understand, actually making Luke the McGuffin of TFA wasn’t JJ’s idea.
I get what you’re saying Collipso, but in that moment Leia has lost all hope, which make Luke coming back to reignite that hope makes it so powerful.