I don’t doubt it was a last second decision. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a warranted one.
I think both of you are forgetting that at its core Star Wars is a fairy tale. It’s for 12 year olds. Nev, your argument for how it should have been about the systems that subvert democracy would definitely work in a political drama or some movie that is for a much older audience. It definitely works as an underlying message in the prequels or TLJ, but I don’t believe it should be the overall message of the saga.
I much prefer the mythical good guys v. bad guys side of things, and the struggles that the good people go through to resist the evil side.
That’s not an excuse for it to suffer from bad writing, and certainly does not make it be immune from criticism. Not that I agree with Nev.