It seems I can’t help but think about this mess of a movie, so instead of cluttering other threads I’ll just put the ideas here for now. 😃
The Final Order:
The Ascendant edit has Poe explain that Emperor has a stockpile of old Star Destroyers leftover from the war, and further says that they have been updated with dreadnought cannons.
I would alter this dialogue to convey that directly after the Emperor’s death, his most loyal captains from across the galaxy charted a course into the unknown regions and eventually regrouped over Exegol, and this is where they have remained all these years. This contingency plan was known to his loyalists as ‘The Final Order’, to be executed in the event of his death. This explains why the Rebels were victorious even when the Imperial Starfleet was undefeated in ROTJ; much of it disappeared into Hyperspace after the Death Star was destroyed. This further explains Finn’s statement that the Death Star was where the last war ended. Even if the battle of Jakku was the official end of hostilities, the war was decided when the Emperor died and much of his starfleet vanished.
The dreadnought cannons addition can be conveyed in the Kijimi destruction scene, which can be altered to indicate that only the primary city was destroyed in the attack.
This is a good idea to convey, but I think it’s best placed in one of the earlier movies as setup for this one. There must be an opportunity to have someone say something like “after Palpatine’s most loyal admirals fled with their fleets after the battle of Endor/Jakku/etc” in TFA or TLJ.