I think I see Hal’s intent with the new shot and I think it works. On the opening shot we see the TIEs are a ways off from the planet, so having an ‘establishing shot’, as I refered to it, of the surface allows some inferred time for the TIEs to actually reach the planet, then we can cut back to them. It’s a nice transition from ‘TIEs on space’ to ‘TIEs on the surface’, plus it’s a really pretty and striking shot that would be obscured with TIEs flying around.

And I don’t think the castle having no trees is an issue since it’s shown to be on a cliff in the background: the ‘establishing’ shot establishes lava and trees, then we se lava on the castle shot, and then we se trees on the flyover shot.