During the Force Awakens the First Order was just some fuckboys from the ass end of nowhere. Leia couldn’t get anyone to assist her because she was the only one who thought these Empire cosplayers were a danger.
Then Last Jedi retconned them to be a galaxy spanning Junta without retconning how much help Leia was able to wrangle.
@Dustcan
I believe the logic was the ruled by default because the new republic’s military was anhilated along with the capital, and since a single old school ISD could easily subdue multiple systems simply by being within range their new ones meant that no one was able to muster resistance when they declared themselves the new empire, to many people forget that a single ISD is worth an entire flotilla of clone wars era ships in terms of population suppression, let alone the resurgence class,
About that…
(Well mostly the latter comment and keep in mind this video was made pre-TROS but that shouldn’t matter much.)
Remember that The First Order, despite its advanced Star Destroyers, didn’t have the same numbers as the Empire.
Palps sent them out to keep the galaxy busy while the Final Order was being prepared.
Which also means yes, Snoke was always intended to be pushover fodder.