I think all of your judgement calls are pretty solid so far.

I actually haven’t seen smudger9’s first TV-to-movie edit of Clone Wars, but the idea of hybridizing bits of different episodes together to manufacture new narrative through-lines is a really interesting idea. Keeping that whole arc similar to how smudger9 does it would be a cool way to pay tribute to him as well, since he’s definitely a pioneer for this whole concept.

Seeing that concept applied throughout the series, where appropriate, would definitely make watching through it a fresh experience, even for people who have watched the series before.