Here are my thoughts on the Falcon ride: They wanted to fulfill people’s fantasies of riding on/piloting the Millennium Falcon. If they built something less interactive, people would have been disappointed. If they built something less realistic, but the gunner and engineer could “see,” people would have been disappointed - or angry, because it wasn’t true to the original. If they built a ride experience that fully depended on people’s abilities to pilot it (without any prior training), be the engineer, or be a gunner, people WOULD get very angry/frustrated with other people in the group. So, I feel like they had to balance a lot of demands and come up with the best compromise possible.
I am sure they are going to learn a LOT these next few days, weeks, and months. One idea might be to divide up the guests a la Mission Space - Green Team or Orange Team? Are you the “casual” fan and/or families with young children? Here just for the fun experience? You get grouped with others like you. Are you hyper-competitive, experienced with the ride, really want to up your reputation? You go with others like you. But right now, let’s just get people to experience it!
It kinda hurts my heart to hear reviews like Len’s after all the imagineering, hard work, and time that many, many people put into making guests’ dreams become reality. To say it isn’t much better than Mission Space??? Come on.