On the question of removing/keeping the kiss between Ben and Rey, I would rather it were cut. It would be quite simple to do I think. I’ve read here how some audiences groaned and some cheered. Here’s my thinking.

The overriding thought I have on this is my feeling that Ben and Rey ultimately come through their adventures more as brother and sister than as lovers. Throughout TROS the parallels to Luke and Leia reinforce the sibling idea. There’s an interesting resonance imagining what might have been if Palpatine had been able to get his claws into either Luke or Leia if they hadn’t been hidden from him. The goal of each throughout the new trilogy has been to turn the other, just as Luke set out to turn his father. Again, the familial rather than romantic parallel. The tension is good, the realization falls flat for me, though. And for the Reylo fans that respond positively to the kiss, I suspect they might get just as much emotional mileage from a Romeo and Juliet unrequited love version of the scene in which it seems the kiss might be possible, but then Ben dies.

re: Wilhelm scream. It may be that, as a child of the age of ILM dominance, I am just imagining things but, I think I hear a disguised Wilhelm at the beginning of the battle of Exegol, right after Poe says “Welcome to Exegol” on his roll to the right, the engines growl in an odd way that sounds Wilhem-ish to me. Similarly, I would swear there is a Wilhelm disguised in TLJ when Kylo makes his first rage filled swipe at Luke. Is it just me?