Yeah, I see what you mean. It feels like a common trope where the hero kills faceless goons without remorse, but when it’s time to kill the big bad, who is arguably the most responsible for the Bad Stuff, the hero spares them.

Again, I know the idea is that Rey is defending herself by blocking the lightning, but it feels like she aggressively shoves it back in his face. Maybe the message you could get from that is that Rey’s anger, or desire to protect others using self defense, doesn’t define her or make her fall to the dark side. Maybe the idea being she is in control of her emotions, rather than just ignoring/purging them like the old Jedi ways.

I think something nice would be for Rey to end the story with some kind of boon. New knowledge or wisdom that will keep the new Jedi for repeating the same mistakes. But nothing is ever really brought up clearly regarding that, at least in TROS.