I think the appearance of Cad Bane is a bit sudden right near the very end of the series, I understand why they didn’t just outright show him earlier ( it was maybe him that took out the Tuskens?) and they have not positioned the Pyke Syndicate as that threatening for those who have not seen the Clone Wars etc. Now the Syndicate is being shown to have merciless figures working for it but we get to see all of this in only 1 episode. Pacing has been very poor for the first few episodes.
Dave Filoni (Clone Wars and Rebels showrunner type person) always wanted Boba Fett and Cad Bane to have a fight at the end of the Clone Wars but they didn’t get to make them, so the appearance of Cad Bane has his name written all over it to finally get his wish.
I think there will be a series with Luke and his students with a Young Ben (Kylo Ren) in it, the work they put into Luke in this episode and setting up his school feels like it’s world building for a future series.
I really liked the episode, Timothy Olyphant is great in it. I think his character is still alive based upon the camera showing his deputy quite clearly dead and the other townsfolk rushing around the Marshall to help him. I still don’t like the lack of Boba Fett though, although he will no doubt be front and centre in the finale. I get what they are doing, setting up Mandalorian S3, Ahsoka series, maybe Luke series and have more interconnectivity between them (MCU style). This will no doubt have caused disagreements internally at Lucasfilm, but fan service and nostalgia does get people to watch stuff, as well as, hey look it’s that character from the cartoon/other series/movie etc