It's just weird that they thought the reason(s) behind the Emperor's return/resurrection warranted less time and attention than a bunch of characters who've had zero impact on the saga. Did they truly believe audiences had more interest in them than the bigger questions? They apparently filmed all the Palpatine question-answering stuff, yet still saw fit to toss it in favor of Ms. Russell and the others. Those characters provided nothing. If they - Keri, Knights, horse girl - were all edited out, the movie doesn't change one bit, big picture.
Thing is, you can only lay part of this at Abrams' feet. People above him, far more powerful and with more control,
signed off on/greenlit all this stuff ("Sounds good, J.J...we love it, go with it!"). That's the crazy part! It took a lot of people - educated, industry-savvy, successful people - being really stupid to create this silliness. A joint effort, where everyone's brains fell out of their heads for 6-9 months.
