I haven’t heard this come up, but if the Sith could muster “the largest fleet the galaxy has ever known” with full compliment seemingly from the resources of their own little planet, then why didn’t they do that pre-TPM? Why did the Sith need to carefully infiltrate the existing government and pull strings to secure an army? Couldn’t they have just taken over the galaxy by military force as TLJ implies the First Order was in the process of doing before Palpatine appeared and declared the First Order basically pointless?