One thing that could help the ST as a whole would be making the First Order into more of an Imperial remnant who is hellbent on reclaiming the galaxy but isn’t really in a position to do so. They destroy the Republic capital, but that was basically the sum of their might. Once SKB is destroyed, it’s only the lack of the New Republic’s fleet that allows them to pose a threat. In TLJ, they would visually be downgraded in their firepower and shown to be fledging and even wounded due to the loss of their main base. In TROS, they’d be desperate for Palpatine’s old imperial fleet he stockpiled, because it’d give them a huge leg up.
I think you just described what the mando-verse seems to be going for.
In terms of what you were saying, I always did get that idea in TROS at least, they are “in need of/could use the assistance” for Palpatine’s imperial stockpile. my head canon just assumed that the holdo maneuver gave the first order’s fleet a dent in their arsenal, which bought the resistance time to rebuild as well, despite the first order is ahead of them. Something ive always personally liked about palpatine’s fleet on exegol is that if unleashed it has more destructive potential than the galactic empire could be. So it’s a situation where its not a repeat of the OT where the empire is already ruling and the rebels is to overthrow it, but in the case of TROS where the final order was on the verge of executing their plan.