Originally, Poe Dameron was supposed to die in the crash on the desert planet. The screenwriters revised the script at the last minute so that Poe Dameron mysteriously survives and is reintroduced late in the film it is very jarring. Also, restore all the deleted scenes that explain the confusing political situation.
The revision was pretty early on in the script writing process. There were scenes filmed of Poe waking up after the crash and then his eventual escape from Jakku