If you think that two minutes is enough time to mourn the death of a cultural icon, then great.
Not what I’m suggesting. I’m saying that if the movie spends so much time on reminding the audience of Chewie’s death, then all of that time is spent ultimately for nothing (except a heightened sense of relief maybe). But relief only works on a first time viewing. And after a first time watcher sees the movie, they might think it was cheap to drag out the grief for that long only to go back on it. Two minutes is enough time for the characters to think an icon has just died.
I felt the same way after I watched ANH. Why did they waste all of that time establishing the Death Star as a threat if it was just going to be destroyed later on? What’s the point of Han and Leia flying through the asteroid field in ESB if they were just going to leave it a few minutes later? Why did we spend so long in ROTJ on the Emperor trying to tempt Luke to join him, if Luke ultimately didn’t?
Hell, why waste an entire trilogy on Kylo being evil, if he would eventually turn good?
The point is the journey, not the destination. Just because something didn’t have a specific payoff doesn’t mean the emotional investment was any less.