I had considered the fact that we don’t know about the galaxy rising above its fear until later, and to that I’d point out the changes we already made on Kijimi and the puppet show. Zorri says that things have been crazy on Kijimi “ever since Skywalker”. The puppet show shows that Luke’s legend gives the people hope.
Without Palpatine’s message going out to the whole galaxy that he is about to attack, we need to understand intuitively in the moment why the civilian fleet has arrived. Or else there’s not much of an explanation why people would bother showing up. I understand there’s a fine line between spelling it out too clearly to the audience and laying breadcrumbs, but in this instance my intention was to retroactively explain why the Deus Ex Machina happens.
That being said, your line alternative seems decent. The only problem is that it implies “the weight of [his] legend” was something that Luke feared.