Exhibit A:
Easter Egg in Rogue 1 shows Empire had been developing hyperspace tracking.
Exhibit B:
Rey with Luke worked for me, mostly because she wound up fixing him.
EDIT: EXHIBIT C1: Agreed that space Mary Poppins was straight up bad, especially since some of the footage could have been used in Ep. 9 to give Carrie Fisher an on screen farewell.
Exhibit C2:
Finn-Rose investment of time on casino planet did not have much payout; if the relationship becomes meaningful (plot wise, not emotionally), I can forgive what should have been edited down to a quarter of the time or cut.
BONUS WTF MOMENT:
Going to Maz for help- minimal time investment. If Max is going to play Deus ex machina in a cameo, that’s fine by me.
Exhibit D:
Snoke served his narrative purpose as a bridge between Rey & Kylo and between VII and IX. Ren is no longer a Darth
Derivative, having succeeded where DV failed: overthrowing his dark side boss. Now he can be his very own villain. Snoke’s backstory can be told in some fanboy comic later.
Exhibit E:
Kylo’s Coup worked for me as a choreographed sequence, too.
Exhibit F:
Rey’s parentage remains open enough for future installments to go any direction. That’s a win in my book.
Exhibit G:
Whatever, indeed. Yoda & Luke had a close relationship. Is force ghost Yoda supposed to show up and tell Kylo he remembers his grandpa?
Exhibit H:
The rebels have a few vacant spots in the admiralty. But droids can’t fight to save what they love, so I don’t think it would work within the internal logic of the story.
Exhibit I:
Luke’s exit made sense for the arc. Rey reconnects him to the force, he becomes one with it after a last heroic stand. Way better than prequels.

Addendum 1: Luke tossing light saber over his shoulder was not only for a cheap laugh in E8, it was a physical representation of his separation from the force
Addendum 2: Showing Chewie eating porgs is a fair criticism but the fate of porgs does not distress me.
Addendum 3: "running out of gas" was symbolic for the rebellion. I think it makes a nice bridge to the third installment with a relatively blank slate. Kylo, Rey and Poe have all grown. Franchise does need to figure out what to do with Finn (and Rose).
Addendum 4: The tracker is just on the main First Order ship. I took it to mean that even if the rebel ships spread out, the first order fleet could dispatch its destroyers after them.