I really liked that J.J. brought back Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker, and I thought it was an absolutely necessary thing to do.

By bringing him back, it ties all nine Skywalker saga movies together as one cohesive, overarching story and makes The Rise of Skywalker feel like an actual series finale to the saga, it feels like there really is one overarching villain for the saga rather than just killing him off for good in Return of the Jedi and then having Kylo Ren be the villain in the last trilogy.

He is so important to the saga, and had he not been included as the final villain of the trilogy, and, by extension, the saga, then it would’ve felt like something was missing. We have more of an established connection with him over the first six films than with Kylo Ren or Snoke or Plagueis or the Yuuzhan Vong from Legends or Maul.

For once I agree with you. No one else agrees with me on this.