Reading your initial post was a breath of fresh air haha. I definitely agree with all those points, but I really really hate Rey being a Palpatine. Luke’s sacrifice would pay off with the fleet changes, if possible. But Rey being a Palpatine obliterates the entire theme in TLJ that anyone can be special, it doesn’t matter who you’re related to or where you come from. So much of the movie relies on this plot point though that I’m unsure how such a thing would be done.
It’s unfortunate that as you just said, the movie really needs more breathing room, in particularly when landing setup/payoff combos like the droid line. Same thing with Chewie, there’s barely any time to accept or process the setup and then POOF the payoff shows up almost immediately.