I disagree with that article completely. Rey Palpatine wasn’t done for any storytelling reason, it was just done to please people who were pissed that Rey was a nobody in TLJ. And I really don’t like Rey taking the Skywalker name without permission, just because some ghosts smiled at her. If Jeff Bezos smiled at me, would that mean I’m a billionaire? Rey’s arc in TROS makes no sense, and it devalues TLJ’s message that anyone can be a hero. It’s one of those moments that was clearly designed to be a dig at TLJ, like “Go away, Rose!” and “A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect.”
I hate that they used Palpatine of all things, but I feel it was to fill the void of a main villain in the saga now that Snoke is gone, and to explain why she was so powerful at everything with no real training of anything. She’s the first character in the Saga to do that and of course it requires a reason.
Me, I would just love for Luke to have trained her in TLJ. Wasted opportunity.