In my view, all they had to do was tell the same “hero’s journey” story but with a female lead instead of male. And they couldn’t even get that right. Three movies with no shared vision and a rushed ending.
Rey’s journey naturally follows the Heroine’s Journey as much as it does the Hero’s Journey. She’s a girl after all. The problem I find is that The Rise of Skywalker has her go through trials that she already went through. Dark Rey is more or less the equivalent to the Mirror on Atch-To. There’s also a Throne Room with her biggest adversary at the given time in both films. It’s more or less the same in both except for the difference that Rey doesn’t need Kylo’s help to defeat Palpatine as she did with overcoming Snoke.
Not to mention she begins her journey alone on a desert and ends it alone on another desert. That’s so depressing to me for a character that longs for belonging. It just feels very sloppy. I think Rey had a lot of potential to be one of the best characters in the series but they didn’t know how to write her. The Force Awakens has her as an audience insert character more or less. The Last Jedi tries to get away from this. I don’t know what The Rise of Skywalker was doing with her except to hammer home she’s the protagonist and can do everything. I find everything is given to her because the plot says so or fills a need of nostalgia being used in the story like being given Luke’s X-Wing or Chewbacca.
It’s the problem too with letting her use advanced Force Powers like the Jedi Mind Trick and Force Pull. It took Luke and Anakin time to develop their skills. Anyone can use the Force and even be a Jedi but it’s meant to take time to develop the ability to use it. There’s no stakes otherwise as it makes it a magic trick. There’s a major misconception that having Rey as a “Nobody” is this revolutionary idea but it’s not. The Jedi as a whole were a bunch of nobodies. We just happened to be following a family saga for six films. I guess you can count Kylo/Ben with Han and Leia but it misses important contexts building through the story including The Clone Wars series. He should have a sister to counter him. George wisely had a Solowalker daughter and son.
Ulimately the major problem I find with Rey is they don’t allow her to be her own individual but instead shroud her in mystery boxes and various parentages. Luke and Leia both are individuals but you know they’re Anakin and Padme’s children as they share traits, and yet they still have a sense of self and character growth.