Wow, what a discussion! My intent with potentially changing that line was to “correct” an apparent implied story idea that appears to have been rejected by canon as things bore out following TLJ’s release. Not to flatten the story or make Ben seem worse. (Which is worse, slaughtering eight people and leading three to join Hitler’s SS or slaughtering eleven people?)
Also, consider the dramatic pause in the original versus this version:
“When I came to, the temple was burning. He’d vanished with a handful of my students…”
“Were the others okay?”
“… and slaughtered the rest.”
“No!”
Vs
“When I came to, the temple was burning. He’d vanished…”
“Was everyone okay?”
“…and slaughtered my students.”
“No!”
—-
Also, how would people feel about clipping Poe and Rey “meeting” at the end? I imagine people won’t like the idea, but wanted to see, because they are a couple feet apart for a whole scene in TFA. When I see that moment it makes me think, “The movie is making a point that they have not met before” more than “Oh I bet this goes somewhere.” If anything, their friendship I feel is better served to not highlight that it started right when we would have last seen them by the time of TROS.