Are we still determined to keep the “silenced all communication” thing from Trevorrow’s script? I feel like it doesn’t have much relevance here, and it’s contradicted by Lando’s message reaching the entire galaxy.
I think the novel uses this to explain why there are so few members of the Resistance and how the First Order gained so much territory in the year since TLJ. And it gives a little bit of weight to Poe’s comment to Zori about no one listening, it wasn’t because they weren’t listening it’s because the First Order stopped them from listening.