I doubt that anyone really interfered. That the result feels chopped and meddled with doesn’t have to be a result of some outside influence forcing hands. Abrams’ movies all feel that way to some degree, both the ones that work and the ones that don’t.

The idea that art is better if you get out of the artists way at all times doesn’t make sense, and isn’t borne out by the history of filmed art, either. It doesn’t have to be some shadowy conspiracy of invisible hands taking a beautiful thing and making it ugly behind the scenes (although that narrative exists for a reason, and everyone’s familiar with it - probably many people here first heard about it in regards to THX-1138 and Lucas’ “they cut the fingers off my child” analogy) it can simply be that the artist in question frankly screwed up the execution.

Which is what happened. The studio did interfere with Episode 9 - that interference was in the form of throwing out Duel of the Fates and bringing in the guys who had free reign to make The Rise of Skywalker, and did so pretty much exactly the way they wanted to, according to them.

If they don’t wish to accept any excuses on that part, I’m not inclined to offer them any.