I feel like the new canon has potential in its exploration of the rise of the empire era as well as the time between 6 and 7. My theory is that while we have seen this sudden shift in the balance of power play out with the empire crumbling rapidly and the first order coming out of nowhere I don't believe we have seen every major player in the galaxy. The First Order almost seems like Snoke's puppets (hes not even at their main base during the moment of their planned final victory) and not the primary card hes playing. The first order I suspect is not the only active remnant of the empire/sith forces and is instead acting as more of a distraction while Snoke does whatever he is doing behind the scenes. I understand this might sound weird but to me it sounds like Snoke has fashioned the first order into more of a super powerful terror group than an army meant to reshape the Galaxy. I assume in the aftermath final novel we will learn more about the founding of the First Order and the status of other Imperial remnants. I'm still sort of hoping Thrawn is somewhere with his own new canon Empire of the Hand. Anyway I suspect that Snoke is playing a way more sinister game than simply reforging an empire that already broke once and I wouldn't be surprised actually if he somehow was involved in making the old empire fall apart after Endor
See their are more problems
1: Why would Snoke waste his time getting thses forces together?
2: Snoke cannot of been unknown to the force users unless... He wasn't in the galaxy at the time.
3: We will not know about the Imperial Remnant because aftermath only covers a short window after Endor(AKA a year)
4: We hear from Kylo Ren that the first order has recover archives from the Empire which means they Know who Thrawn is.
5: WHY IS THEIR A FULLY DETAIL MAP OF THE GALAXY?
?
6: Who is this imperial Warlord that the First Order looks up too.
7: Since when did the First order get a weapon that powerful. The empire made only two death stars barely bigger than a moon with and is Powered by kyber crystals and able to only blow up 1 planet. The First Order which lacks planets builds a weapon cable able of destroying entire star systems.