I was thinking about this earlier. Shouldn’t the cloned palpatine faces in the liquid vats shown early in the film be younger versions of him and not disfigured?
Because Rey’s father was a clone of palpatine and was obviously show to be young. Unless I’m not remembering something correctly.
His ugly face is his real form. It’s why he doesn’t turn young when he sucks up Rey and Ben’s life force, and why he turns into that abomination in RotS.