Maybe Palps experimented on Rey’s Dad, but it failed (or succeeded horribly)? He could even be force sensitive in this version, a threat to Palpatine who chose to become a nobody, living on the fringes of civilisation, out of fear for his origins and love for his wife and child. That’d explain why Palpatine would resent him so much.
I feel like this is an unexpectedly neat angle. But yeah, probably not for your edit, as you say.