One other meta thought - this story clearly likes subverting expectations and bathos, and I’ve gotta say this would probably be one of the most egregious cases of it. Can you imagine if Lando actually showed up for 10 seconds in this movie? People would have been furious lol.
But knowing what I know from TROS I feel like this just makes the most sense. Maz calls him the “second-best smuggler [she’s] ever met” in the novelization, so I feel like I kinda have to do it lol.