What if… Instead of destroying the Endor shield generator the Rebels redirected the shield to protect the moon from debris. Everyone looking up and seeing the station exploding could be a briefly tense moment as they wait to see if the recalibrated shield works. The big celebration could be seeing the debris bounce off the shield knowing the people below were safe.
This would explain why a moon like Kef Bir would get the majority of the Death Star debris instead of the moon right below it.
The current workaround for this ridiculousness was Ascendant just turning Kef Bir into a different part of Endor. But if I worked at Lucasfilm I would have to make the retcon you mention here to make sense of things in theatrical TROS.