Yeah, they at least listened to the fans and retconned or dialed back a lot of bullshit that set people off in Last Jedi. They cut out the politics instead of pushing the feminism down our throats. Rose took a major back seat, she had no meaningful part in the movie whatsoever and they squashed the romance. They went from Rian Johnson saying "Rey's parents are nobodies" to "Oh, Rey's a Palpatine!" Luke's character was much improved from what they did with him in Last Jedi. They even made a reference to the "Holdo Manuever" and poked fun at that.
The Sith ARE an actual race though, or at least they once were. There's often confusion because there was an actual Sith race, and then we have the practitioners of the dark side that we also refer to as the Sith. It's stupid, it's basically the same word for two different things (Although at one time I think there were many dark side practicing Sith and the rule of two was something they created later).
They did a call back to Revenge of the Sith. I think Kylo asks "I thought you died?" Palpatine responds with "The dark side of the force is a pathway that leads to many abilities some consider to be....unnatural." I think we're supposed to glean that Palpatine used the force to save himself somehow. It's a little hard to believe, but then again Maul survived getting cut in half in Phantom Menace and falling too.
I've thought about this bit some. Palpatine became a necessary evil for Rise of Skywalker (pun intended). When Johnson fucked up the Snoke character by killing him off early, it left a power vacuum for antagonists going into the last film. We had two established bad guys: General Hux and Kylo. We find out that Hux was a spy of sorts, and honestly he would have never made a good primary antagonist for the film because of his weak nature, so he's out. Kylo is out too, because he was set to get his redemption arc which they teased from the very first movie. That left no possible antagonists for a climax with Rey. So, Abrams really only had two options: create a new antagonist out of thin air, or bring back an existing character. It's pretty difficult creating a new supreme bad guy for the final film in a trilogy....there's no history, there's no attachment, you're having to build someone new up against already established characters. You don't introduce Sauron in the final book of the Lord of the Rings. So, Abrams went to the well to bring back Palpatine. Given his powers with the dark side and the bit/reference they made to Revenge of the Sith and Dark Plageus, he made the most sense to return. It gave Abrams an established bad guy, even if it was played out and it cheapened the Vader redemption arc a bit.
Disney would just like to say "This holiday season, don't forget to force call your loved ones."