Well a little while ago I finished the edit and gave my full honest review.
Thank you so much for the detailed and very fair review. Criticisms I would add to my own edit are some of the audio transitions in the cuts were not smooth enough especially in the monkey elf scene. And an earlier instance of the edit had slightly better editing on the revamped Kylo Dialogue. But unfortunately I did this edit in Premiere and it glitches when saving audio at a granular level and reloading the project.
My hope is someone builds off Ascendant while using my or a similar implementation (idea by idir_hh) of Rey Killed her parents. I’d also like to see others moving the Emperor reveal to later but no one has jumped on that. Hal’s implementation of the Emperor’s broadcast, though, is quite brilliant and I’d be fine with his version of the scene in a “definitive” cut.
The best parts of my edit are probably the improved Rey Vs Ren in TIE Fighter, replacing, new SFX for the cartoony stormtrooper yells, tightening up of the final battle sequences (Finn and Jannah getting rescued) and celebration/hugs afterward.
Glad you appreciated some of the elements. Hope someone else takes some of my ideas and builds something even better!