A puppet being operated by the real villain?
But why have a dime store Palpatine if the plan all along was to use the real thing?
Because that’s how Palpatine operates. Masks, deceptions and lies. Snoke was just a more sophisticated version of wearing a hood and keeping his face in a strategically placed shadow.
I…
They hired Andy Serkis. You don’t do that for a nothing throw away character.cough Dooku cough
Dooku has way more backstory than Snoke though.
He also was never presented as the big bad of the trilogy.
So, smaller role and more context.