They don’t really comment on anything about the hopelessness of Luke being gone and the joy of being alive.
Umm, yeah they do. That was literally the entire point of the scene of the Falcon.
They also don’t comment on Snoke being dead, or Kylo being alive, or several other major plot points.
That’s because that sort of stuff is nowhere near the same level as Emperor Palpatine himself returning from the grave. That stuff is just unexpected, Palpatine’s return would seem downright impossible to them.
Like, they did not stop the First Order at all, or even give them a setback. There isn’t need to comment on it until they can regroup and start investigating it.
But you’d think they would be much more shocked about it than they are in the original cut, where they’re just shocked over no one responding to their message. The complete lack of even one line saying something like “What? That’s impossible!” is just weird.
Not having the message at all feels… convenient. It’s just as unbelievable in the theatrical releases, but now as an audience we don’t have the evidence of his return that our heroes have (even if we do see Palpatine with Kylo). It’s such a strange plot point, to have a galaxy-wide message that forces the entire galaxy back into fearful submission, and on top of that not even include it into the films. As odd as it may be that people wait a bit to talk about the message onscreen, it’s more odd to not have the message at all.
It wasn’t the message that forced the galaxy back into submission, it was just the First Order ruling with an iron fist. Palpatine’s message didn’t occur until one year into the First Order’s reign, by which time they had already established control over the galaxy.
Also, the doubt expressed at the beginning of Rise of Skywalker helps support the lack of them immediately talking about the message at the end of Last Jedi.
That just exacerbates a problem that was already present in the original cut: When they get Hux’s message, they act shocked, as if they had no clue Palpatine had returned. It explicitly contradicts the opening crawl talking about Palpatine sending a message to the entire galaxy. Since the message was such an obviously contrived plot point inserted last-minute, I think Hal was right to remove it completely.