I was talking to Servii about this in PMs, I think it’s interesting how open the galaxy seems to be in the PT, compared to the OT and ST where the galaxy gradually seems smaller and smaller. If I were to write my own version of all of Star Wars, I’d lean into that hard. The galaxy is bustling and vibrant in Episode 1, but the Clone Wars and then later the Empire mar the galaxy so badly that it’ll never really recover. Trade completely breaks down, hyperspace lanes are forgotten, planets are abandoned, etc. The New Republic may try to make things what they once were, but with so much galactic infrastructure destroyed and pilfered, it could never.

Jakku is symbolic of what the future of the galaxy’s like. A world which was once an imperial dumping ground now has its own, new ecosystem of scavengers, and the Star Destroyers and walkers which once terrorized the galaxy are now great sources of livelihood. It’s not glamorous like what their great grand-parents would’ve done for a living, but it’s a new niche that didn’t exist before. Without the Empire, Jakku wouldn’t exist.

After Episode 9, the galaxy will never recover or return to its past glory, but will learn to thrive in the new post-Empire reality. Like after the fall of the Roman Empire, civilization will not exist on the same scale that it once did, but new, complex societies are born in the aftermath.