Galaxy's Edge - I was there yesterday. What a wasted opportunity. The only star wars in there is the falcon and that's the most popular thing and area. Imagine if everything was from star wars. I bet the imagineers were frustrated with the restrictions they had set on them by upper management. I kept thinking "imagine if they put this work into making the forest of endoor, Tatooine w/ lukes/lars house, naboo palace/lake, mustafar with Darth vadar, jabas palace,dagobah (yodas house), snowy hoth, the death star, the emporers lair. If you could visit these places and eat there or shop there or meet all the characters there (how about a show with darth maul and vader fighting luke and obiwan) , with music playing, special star wars fireworks. R2D2 and C3po walking around. I mean comeone! There is no way people believe it'll be this slow and not absolutely jam packed had they done any of that. I rode star tours yesterday and then went to smugglers run and I wish they had those locations from star tours in smugglers run I could fly and fight in. Instead of chasing a dumb train to extract electricity. think about how stupid that sounds. There is no way imagineers sat there and when asked "where do we go and what do we do flying the falcon?" "How about we chase a train to extract electricity?". lmao are you kidding?! The response was more likely "OK lets go to the death star to rescue leia and fight vadar on the way (with han solo and chewie assisting you maybe with a animatronic in the cockpit with you) and then another scenario where as bounty hunters we deliver jabbas shipment to hoth where luke is instead of delivering to darth maul on mustafar and drop off droids that spy on mustafar instead dressed to look as the items they were expecting". Im just throwing out random ideas. Timeline doesn't matter, this land should have been a huge celebration of starwars from every era for all whether they grew up with it or just got into it. People should be losing their minds when visiting what should have been "The Galaxy" instead of what is, "Galaxy's Edge"
I'm going to try and hit on all the points you posted above. Keep in mind I am not trying to convince you to love SWGE just as you are not trying to convince anyone to hate it or dislike it.
First it's Darth Vader (sorry I'm that type of SW nerd that likes things spelled right)
The SW Galaxy you want could've never fit inside the land perimeters, giving people experiences in different planets means having a lot more land, some people have argued that they needed a SW park and not just a land, that's discussion for another thread but a valid point
I see the comparisons with HP and I understand them. HP gives us 3 prominent locations, Hogsmead, Diagon Alley and London. SW has given us and continues to add hundreds of planets and locations. You will not please everyone (I have no desire to visit Dagobah or Tattooine but would love to visit Corellia and Lothal and Kamino and...)
Disney from the get go has told us they want to give us our own SW adventure, meaning putting us in a well known planet or location will limit our experience. Instead they went with an unknown (to us off worlders) location where we can make our own adventure. We can talk to the citizens of Batuu and learn their stories and create our own by exploring, eating and going on the attractions
MFSR yes it's a simulator and yes I agree it would be cool to have different stories while we smuggle for Hondo but again they can't give us Vader with Luke and Maul and Ventress...we are following a story.
SWGE has many details from all movies and animated series and books. Again there for the exploring not smack in your face like the Falcon. You can find lightsabers, blue and green milk, podracer vehicles, droids, various ships from different timelines, creatures(dianoga, sarlacc,etc) , Chewbacca, Rey, Kylo...and again all the crates that you can look inside have different items from all across the SW universe.
I think the issue with most people complaining about SWGE is that they are used to the Disney Park experience, based almost entirely on attractions and the environment playing second fiddle. With SWGE you are inside a SW story that you create. Lucas had a huge part in this and they want to create a land where SW fans feel familiarity but at the same time feel like it needs exploring and living in it.