I thought the restraint on the ships was good, being that it was literally days before ANH. Must have been hard to do. The new small Imperial shuttle and the larger Imperial cargo shuttle were nice. I liked the U Wing. I got the Buck Rogers connection which is very period correct and a nice nerd detail… but I hear you.
I liked how big and complex it was. Unlike TFA and the originals that have a small intimate cast, this was a large ensemble cast. There were factions within The Alliance and factions within The Empire. The sides of good and bad were not monolithic… the fact that the only way to retrieve the disk was manual was a movie cliche gripe. C’mon, that would automated, but I get it for purposes of moving the action along.
I need to see it again too. I want to see if the begging was as jumbled as I remember. That was the roughest part for me.
I love that the Jedi had a point of origin. that was neat.