Good article about the issues with the creative process that got us here.
“Conspiracy theories abound regarding this film, but the truth is probably dumber and more well-meaning than angry fans love to hate to believe.”
https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2019/12/31/decoding-the-rise-of-skywalkers-difficult-creative-process
Different writers have different ways of working. Some like to plow through with no prep and see where it takes them. Some like to plan out every stages. Some like to write scenes and then piece them together. All are valid avenues as writers of each type have produced New York Time bestsellers and box office hits. So you can’t say that the method of writing led to the problems. That is a nonsense argument. What is an argument is that their screenplay was too long and they filmed way more than they needed and then they cut it down in the editing room. That is a valid complaint and one that Abrams seems especially guilty of.
Making movies is not the same as writing. Writing gives you great leeway to redo anything to make corrections. Once you shoot a movie, your options for fixing things become limited. A good director and writer will make sure they have the movie streamlined and polished BEFORE they shoot it so that what ends up on the cutting room floor is minimal. This is how Lucas, Kasdan, and Marquand did the OT. Their reshoots were minimal and necessary. Abrams likes to fix his films with reshoots and in the editing room and it shows (TFA had the same issues). Sometimes that makes fatal issues and sometimes they can be smoothed over. I think for most of TROS that it is seemless.
I think for the Leia scenes a few things are off. But none of that affected the feel of the film for me. It didn’t affect the flow of the story. Frankly, I’d rather have Leia a part of the story imperfectly than not at all. I felt her part to the overall plot was crucial and that was good writing. While the scenes individually were not always perfect, her presence was. The way her part of the story concluded was beautiful and well done. A fitting exit for a marvelous actress and iconic character.
As far as his typical method of fixing the movie in the editing room, I think Abrams did his best job ever on this one. The holes in TFA were glaring to me on the first viewing and have bugged me ever since. I found no such glaring holes in this film. And if we are going to get nitpicky about plot holes, there are a few in our beloved OT that we tend to ignore most of the time and I don’t think we need to hold the ST to a higher standard. I found the story to flow in a way that I have yet to notice any serious plot holes. In my experience with movies there are two types of issues. Ones I notice the first time and can never get around and others that it takes a while to noticed that never really bother me. TROS and TLJ have none of the first type while TFA and AOTC both have them (probably why I rank them at the bottom of all the films).