This ^
I’m pretty sure they never were able to come to a solid plan while filming. Look no further than the fact that Palpatine’s original plan in the script was to get Rey and Ben together in order to drain their dyad (which would have been significantly better imo), and JJ also wasn’t sure if he wanted Rey to be a Palpatine even while filming.

If we had access to all the filmed material, I’m convinced we could have made a significantly better film. Instead, we have to make sense out of what we have (or otherwise gut the entire movie).