I’d love to see this scene fixed and reimplemented. Rian’s reasoning on the commentary is smart but I think there’s a solution. The issue with how the scene is conceived is that it comes immediately after Rey saying she won’t fail Luke, so that perceived progress in their relationship is negated.

But the deleted scene actually does help in terms a lot in terms of both explaining Luke’s perspective but also ultimately shows Luke feeling bad and inching closer to returning to help, himself.

In my mind you resolve this simply by delaying its placement until after we cut back to Rey and Luke (so right after the Fathier chase and before Luke taps back into the force). This way you get to live for a bit with the beat of Luke and Rey getting along, and you get to follow up Luke feeling bad after the caretaker debacle with him reaching out to Leia.

As for how well this sequencing works pacing-wise, not sure. As well, you’d probably want to make the second lesson scene seem less like it’s at sunset, which I’ve tried to do with little success thus far (though I am no color expert).