Glad you finally found some relevance in this pointless conversation. I agree that removing some humor would make the movie flow better. But I’m still not sure if Luke giving the saber back to Rey can be pulled off seamlessly. In every clip that I’ve seen, the footage is obviously reversed.

One option I’ve seen that might have promise is Luke just keeping the saber, and walking off with it. I think it could be pulled off through some simple cutting, and it would show that Luke is conflicted over whether he should return, rather than flat-out refusing to help.