TLJ has a very warm and very soft light appearance. Which I personally like, but I still completely agree that the film is visually too dark for the same reasons you’ve pointed out. My own suggestion is that the new grade ups the contrast too much - it’s making the bright parts stand out even more from the scenery, while also washing out the lighting gradient on people’s faces like they’re standing under fluro tubes. In my opinion, the lighter areas don’t really need to get much lighter at all, it’s just the mids that need to be brightened a bit. You’ll also be fighting against the theatrical lighting by going for a blue tint, which isn’t to say that you shouldn’t do it (it would certainly be an interesting change), but it’ll be a lot more difficult.

I feel like that sounds overly negative, which isn’t my intention; I always like seeing your colour grading process.