They could’ve just made Hux lash out more after how he was treated in TLJ. One of the good things in the DOTF script was that it introduced Hux by having him execute the Resistance sympathizer. It reestablishes Hux as someone who had power to hurt people we care about. (It also makes Hux have Force-envy, but…)

But Hux throwing a coup against Kylo felt like such a huge set up. I find it weird JJ and Terrio watched that, saw that final look Hux have Kylo in TLJ, and said, “Well shit, we gotta get rid of Hux now…”

It would probably be a bit of a challenge, but in a more radical edit, I would like to see Pryde and Hux simply working together to try and depose Kylo. So when Pryde gives Hux that look in the meeting room, it’s not because Pryde is suspicious of Hux, but because he’s in on it. So Pryde knows that Hux is leaking information to undermine Kylo’s authority, because they see Kylo as a misguided leader.

You could cut Pryde killing Hux, have Hux communicate with Palpatine’s hologram alongside Pryde or in his stead, and then use footage from TLJ to have Hux observe the battle of Exegol from the Star Destroyer bridge, with Pryde being his second in command.

Snoke clearly found Hux useful, “You wonder why I keep a rabid cur in such a place of power… a cur’s weakness, properly manipulated, can be a sharp tool…” If Snoke was made by Palpatine, then it’s possible that Palpatine would have similar motivations for him.

I think a big motivation for this is that I feel like it isn’t satisfying when we see Pryde blow up at the end, because we’ve barely had any time to feel anything about him. We’ve had three films with Hux, and I think it would be a lot more cathartic to see Hux get blown up by Finn, than to quickly get killed by Pryde and then forget about him.