Let’s not turn this into the TLJ debate thread?
And I don’t think Palpy qualifies as a big dumb bad guy. He engineered a decades long plot to put himself into power and played both sides against each other to do it. Sure, it was almost Rube Goldberg in excecution, but you can’t deny the twisted old fart had a plan.
Yeah, I should qualify by saying he’s no dummy in the prequels, but retconning him and the entire story of the ST to make him the big bad guy pulling the strings may be the dumbest idea that I can think of. It’s fan service and it appeals to the lowest common denominator of moviegoers who need a big bad guy and would prefer it if it’s someone they already know, so they don’t have to think.