I was in favour of the story decision to have Palpatine return. Even though he'd been defeated before, it just felt natural to me to have him come back for one last stand, tying the three trilogies together and establishing him as the ultimate villain of the Skywalker Saga. Although I don't think his return should have have been revealed right at the beginning. The "Is he or isn't he back?" would've worked better as a creepy mystery that was slowly built up over the course of the film, and it would've given a bit more 'Oompf' when he finally is revealed.
My biggest complaint is that the film felt rushed and crammed, with not enough downtime between the action scenes. It should've been an extra 30, or even 45 minutes longer to give things more room to breathe. Admittedly, this is part of the reason why I consider the film to be a step down from the original trilogy, as well as Force Awakens and Last Jedi. As an example, I liked the twist that Hux was the Resistance spy; I certainly didn't see that one coming! But then he gets disposed of almost immediately after; I was expecting something more to come from that. There were things like that which were interesting ideas, but could've been better fleshed out.
One part I loved was during the final battle when the many Jedi offer their encouragment and strength to Rey to help her take down Palpatine once and for all. Such an uplifting moment. It was especially great to hear Qui-Gon and Kanan again. More generally, I liked that they were able to bring back so many of the previous characters. This is one area where I do feel Rise of Skywalker had a distinct advantage; it was such a nice culmination of the past 42 years of Star Wars. I also loved the ending scene. It delivers a great message that your family is ultimately who you choose them to be.