Rey was never a hope for Star Wars fans. Rey was only a hope for Kathleen Kennedy's "force is female" agenda.
I like pub food! Though I don't just like any pub food. Over the years of living in my area I have made the rounds from pub to pub to pick my favorites. If I want a burger I go to X, if I want chicken wings I go to Y, if I want bbq I go to Z, if I want fish and chips I go to A.
Not sure you can separate "true" Star Wars Fans via their reception of the sequels. I went through two VHS sets of the original Trilogy (literally watched them till they broke) played pretty much every Star Wars game a couple times, have read 20+ of the EU novels, and spent my adolescent wealth on SW legos and toys. I also really like ep VII, ep VIII has grown on me, and I am pretty happy with ep IX.
Binge watched The Mandalorian. It felt more like a spiritual successor to Firefly than Star Wars. I liked the Mandalorian, but it's not as good as Firefly. Compared to Firefly it has weaker character arcs and less laughs but better action scenes. It's not as good as Firefly, but it's the closest thing we've had to Firefly in years. It also made me think of the West End Star Wars RPG. Especially the focus on the EWEB heavy repeating blaster rifle. Also, the fact that the characters shrugged off a lot of hits, not just the Mandalorian. When my friends and I played Star Wars, we hardly ever dodged, we mostly relied on rolls to resist damage. I'm sure at least one of the writers played the Star Wars RPG. I enjoyed the Mandalorian and would recommend it to friends, but it's not worth re-watches in my opinion. It's certainly not enough to carry Disney+ by itself.
I watched the second half of the show yesterday. I like it, but there were a few things I found...weird, to say the least. - Baby Yoda's force power moments are _very_ convenient - the IG droid tear jerker scene felt forced to me. We have seen the Mandalorian and even the IG droid take out dozens of Stormtroopers with ease. There are only, like, eight or ten of them waiting outside the tunnel, and suddenly the plot armor fails? - the enemies are conveniently incompetent. And so are some of the allies. I will rewatch it once I have a decent TV again so I cam see more details in the scenes. The show is full of Easter eggs and I am sure I missed some.
As for Baby Yoda's force it seems like he uses it when things are at their worst. Being connected to the force he can probably sense these things even if he doesn't know why. He may just be able to feel the emotions of those nearest to him, which could have explained why he tried to force choke Cara (that's her name right?). He may have sensed the Mando's anger as he tried to best her and then thought he was in trouble. As for the IG scene I think the implication was that they might sink the boat and they would have no cover, meaning they would be hit by almost all the shots, which certainly wouldn't be good (especially if Baby Yoda was one of the ones hit!)