Vladius said:
And it does come across as a disguised lecture. The two major POV characters we have (Mon and her cousin) both disapprove of it, with the only caveat being that Mon is a little bit too heavy handed with trying to talk her daughter out of it. The rich person dialogue is very one note, ooh, look how rich and comfortable these people are. The ritual is supposed to be creepy and ominous, and the part where the groom cuts Leida’s braid is given a hard cut like she got killed by a horror movie slasher.How is any of that substantive as commentary, but the surrounding story elements are overindulgent? There isn’t even really “rich person dialogue” ala Succession in the way you describe - most of the scenes are between the main players and Mon’s family. The juice of those interactions is secretly navigating around the surrounding context, and the fraught interpersonal relationships in that double-context. Hell, I don’t even think the notable Perrin speech is even an outright indictment of him - if anything it humanizes him and rounds out his character. He’s not happy with the arrangement either!¹
It’s not even a real culture to critique, if it’s meant to be lecture (which, again, is still beyond what most media is actually doing sans after school specials). What’s supposed to be hard about this for Mon and Perrin is the “selling their child” part of it, not the idea of tradition itself. Certainly not in a show where those are threatened by a pointedly secular Empire weaponizing customs against its various communities.
¹ I could even keep going with Sculdun as a fun character because he’s not from the world of wealth blue-blooded Mon is. but i digress
If I’m remembering correctly there are actually scenes in season 1 and 2 where Mon is uncomfortable with her daughter being into the traditions, and not just because the boy is involved. (I think there’s a part where she’s singing or chanting or something with a bunch of other girls.) It’s part of the clash between her cosmopolitanism as a senator and her native environment, but you can tell that it’s implicit that the audience is expected to lean more on the cosmopolitan side. Which is a fair bet, for the target audience.
The other implicit criticism is that this is all wasteful and decadent because a war is going on. We have revolutionaries dying in the trenches for a galactic war, while these snooty people think they get to have a nice wedding on their home planet and put their heads in the sand. Again, somewhat fair, but we got the point the first time.