in my humble opinion the vision of the director was coopted by influence from both the studio (lucasfilm) and the parent corporation (disney). In particular there were excellent glimmers of brilliance (eg: Luke Skywalker's critique of the Jedi order). I think we can agree with the assessment of Dave Filoni that if Qui-Gon had defeated Darth Maul and continued the tutelage of Obi-Wan and Anakin he may have changed the course of history. Certainly Qui-Gon's minority opinion that kept him off the council aligns with the position taken by luke skywalker in this episode.
I also cannot overstate the importance of a lightsabre duel. Not a fight, but a duel. This is where two characters square off physically with the saber battle but you also see emmense character depth and growth on display. This movie was laking in that respect. Rey and Kylo never actually cross swords and the beautiful fight in the throne room does not truly rise to the character development heights of say Obi-Wan v Vader II or Luke v Vader I.
Finally revisiting the point about the executive meddling, I think that is most apparent in the sheer number of characters and plotlines. There are just too many for the movie to contain in the format. Perhaps a LotR style epic saga extended directors edition could handle it but not that star wars movie format. which I would point out was already extended quite a bit with Last Jedi running at 152 minutes compared to Empire Strikes back at 124 minutes (an increase of about 20%). Certainly the added length and characters and plotlines is not the strength of the movie.