It probably would have been better if those 2 episodes from BOBF were used to open the season here instead
For sure that was an odd call on their part. Book was a mess and using Mando to hold interest seemed weird (if that’s why they did it). Plus it can be confusing if you don’t follow both shows.
At our weekly lunch time TV\Film discussion at work, there was just that. One of my coworkers had bailed from Book after a few episodes. First question to the table was “Why does Mando have the baby again? I thought he went with Luke”.
Crossover is fine between series and can be fun sometimes. I was really happy to see James Woo show up in WandaVision because he was a great character in Ant-Man and the Wasp a few years earlier (plus I’m a huge Randall Park fan). However, one series shouldn’t be a requirement for the other to make sense. Woo as a character\plot element doesn’t affect one show or the other if you haven’t seen both.