I mean, I think it is relevant to the discussion if it helps determine the merits of certain editing choices.
If you view embracing the dark side as being evil, sure. If the dark side is meant to represent the authentic human emotions that we often repress, like fear or anger, then I disagree. It’s the denial and repression of these emotions within us that leads to people becoming evil. If people were to acknowledge their inner dark side and have a healthy relationship with it, then that is perhaps what balance means.
Throughout IX, Rey’s relationship with her powers and inner dark side is reflective of how the Jedi view emotions throughout the saga. Yoda and Obi-Wan warn our protagonists about the dangers of fear and anger, and how they will lead you down the path of the dark side. Even love and attachment is a danger to them, and their only form of compassion is rather non-personal. But if we’ve learned anything from this story, it’s that these views on emotions are wrong. Anakin fell to the dark side not because the Jedi were right to be afraid. He fell because he didn’t develop a healthy relationship with his emotions. He lacked any emotional support after he left his mother, and sought that out with Padmé, which he had to keep secret from the Jedi, because they deemed any form of emotional vulnerability as dangerous.
This is something that was unfortunately repeated with Ben. Like Leia said, “I should have never sent him away. That’s when we lost him.”
Throughout the Saga, Luke is arguably at his best when he doesn’t listen to his masters. It was compassion and love, as well as fear and anger, that allowed him to save his father.
In Rey’s case, I think you can draw a comparison to how women are often viewed as emotional, and how it can be a weakness. Rey views her emotions as her weakness, and thinks it is dangerous enough for her to live out her days in isolation, like Luke tried to do. What if the message of this story that our emotions can actually be our strength? That it is okay to be afraid, or to be angry, and that those emotions don’t make us bad people?
If these movies are, at their most pure form, meant to be for kids, maybe that is the healthy kind of lesson a story like Star Wars would want to teach them. That you shouldn’t view your anger or fear as gateways to evil that must be suppressed. Instead, you can learn to “master the mad you feel”.
If you’re adamant on viewing the Force simply as a fictional magic system which has rules that cannot be broken, fine. But maybe we should consider viewing the Force symbolic of something personal within us, that doesn’t boil down to “one side good, one side bad”.
Even if the way I’m suggesting it be done may not be the right way to do it, I do feel like this question of balance was the inevitable problem that needed to be addressed in this film. Right now, I don’t think the theatrical film gives such an answer, and without an answer I’m afraid this movie will still be totally void of any kind of saga-concluding message, regardless of how much you try and polish it.