This is something I’ve wanted to revisit as well. The last several years I have been busy with school, but I hopefully will be done by the end of July, and was planning to actually help work on this in the fall.
Since you revived this thread, I thought I’d share what I had been thinking recently.
Most of the time since TROS’ release I have been of the same opinion as you. Keep it clean, and just focus on Rey’s struggle with the dark side. I have liked Nev’s idea about Palpatine lying to her, and I know Jar Jar Bricks has spent a ton of time playing around with potential ways to make Rey Palpatine work (whether it is truth or a lie) that have been really interesting to follow. I think what a lot of the write-ups struggle with is that they become really really exposition heavy.
I also know there are some people that don’t want to totally abandon Rey being a Palpatine because it is canon, and it may become relevant in future films. I think some people that have issues with Rey Nobody feel that the movie feels like it is lacking something by just focusing on her dark side potential.
While I do think I still prefer a strictly Rey Nobody version of the film, if I were to entertain a “Rey Palpatine” edit, I think it could be handled the way Blade Runner 2049 handles the question of whether or not Deckard is a replicant.
Basically, keep it ambiguous, but sew seeds of doubt in Rey (and in the audience). Palpatine could tell Kylo off screen, Kylo could tell Rey but still be skeptical (“But Palpatine lies”), Luke could avoid confirming or denying it, (“Regardless if that’s true-”). Kylo doesn’t have to give this convoluted backstory about how she ended up on Jakku. It can be brief. “Palpatine cheated death, and claims he created life: you.”, “He said he has the power to cheat death… and create life…”, or “He claims that you’re his secret heir, a true Palpatine, destined to take the throne.” Yadda yadda. It would be similar to how Palpatine in ROTS talked about Plagueis having the power to create life, and it sort of hints at him potentially creating Anakin but it is never really confirmed or refuted in just the movies.
And when she meets up with Luke, he could be a little meta about it. Saying something like, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Palpatine, or if you’re no one, everyone has a dark side, and it is something we must all face.” (This isn’t verbatim what I have written in my notes, just the gist of what I’m thinking)
I think one benefit to this is that you don’t have to heavily chop up Rey’s confrontation with Palpatine. It can be painted as him just trying to offer Rey belonging or whatever. And in the end, when he says she is nothing, it can kind of confirm that he was lying about it the whole time. OR, you can interpret it the same way the theatrical movie does. With this idea I think you should cut out any connection between Ochi, his ship, and Rey’s parents. Just leave Rey’s parents buried. No flashbacks.
Anyway, could be a way to have your cake and eat it, too.
Regardless if this is a viable approach, I’ll have to go back and look at my notes when I have more free time in August. I definitely have something written out for a strictly Rey Nobody version. It might not be bad if anyone has worked on a Rey Nobody edit could share assets to allow others to work on the major scenes, like Kylo’s chambers and the hangar scenes.