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Notes -
It was always doomed, for a few reasons.
Disney rushed Star Wars: The Force Awakens into production which meant no holistic plan for the trilogy. They also went all-in on pandering to existing fans with a derivative plot. It was already broken at this point.
Last Jedi came out, rightly loathing TFA's derivative plot but erasing it (due to there being no plan) which just enraged fans of the first film invested in what it set up
Disney insists on a pivot but also doesn't change the release date so someone had to redo the entire (non-existent) plan from scratch to mollify both TFA and TLJ fans under a time constraint.
Abrams is very often be called a hack, but it was always a cursed endeavor and he's a veteran who's shown he can do competent work.
A lot of the time what seems to happen is that the writer/director is chosen due to being pliable and helpful instead of experienced (see Abrams' proteges who ended up on Rings of Power) and then have to craft a good story between studio mandates. They're neither competent enough to do it nor do they have enough cachet to impose their will even if they had a better plan.
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