To be honest, I’m not really sure how I’d be able to keep Ben alive. Like, sure, I could remove the shot of him keeling over; but without any more footage after that, I don’t think the movie would feel complete. That said, I think Movies Remastered might be doing something with keeping Kylo alive - I know he’s floated the idea before, at least - so you may want to look into his work if you’re interested in exploring that angle for the film!
As for the Reylo romance, I think I’m still leaning towards removing it, yes. But the way I have it mapped out, I still want to emphasize their connection and their relationship; I just won’t make that relationship explicitly romantic. I think it’s sort of a “best of both worlds” situation: people like me, who don’t see a romantic connection between them, don’t have an awkward kiss shoved into the film at the last minute; and people like you, who do see it that way, can infer that the romance is there - they just weren’t able to physically act on it before Kylo dies.
I always thought the only way to keep Kylo alive would be to cut him completely from the big Exegol showdown and move his scene with “Han” to the end of the movie (an open, bitter-sweat ending). It could be the last scene of the movie.
It’s like, he came back to the light, but where can he go now? How will he redeem himself?
I believe it’s way better than what we got in the movie (basically Vader 2.0).