I'm not sure it moved the plot of TBOBF forward in any way, but it sure is setting up The Mandalorian Season 3.
Not only setting up The Mandalorian Season 3, but maybe other shows as well.... makes me wonder if all those "pre-Empire,Galactic Republic" ship parts ended up on Tatooine thanks to whatever is gonna happen in Kenobi?
Ooooo! I like that idea. I thought Tatooine was supposed to be a really remote, untraveled location from the OT. It seems like the hub of the universe between Luke, Kenobi, Boba, Mando, the Pykes, the Hutts, etc. A tie in to Kenobi would be a nice link - that's one of the things I love so much about all the Marvel stuff is the small connections that make it seem cohesive.
I'm also not clear on why Din didn't tell the Armorer or Paz about the other Mandos - they seemed to think they were the only ones left. It felt kind of weird that he rejoined them for a few hours just to leave again. Certain scenes like Mando having to unload all his weapons before boarding seem odd to me - if nothing's going to happen to them, then we didn't really need to belabor that. When I recap my travels, I generally don't spend a lot of time talking about how I made it through airport security with no issues.
I really liked the episode overall despite the lack of Boba. Kind of slow at times, but it gets Mando to Tatooine with a new ship, brings the mechanic (and R5!) back into the story, lets us know the Armorer and Paz are still out there, and had some great scenes with Mando flying the N-1, the Wheel space station, Darksaber battle, Night of a Thousand Tears, etc. Weird to have this in the middle of Boba's show, but I liked it as a stand alone episode. I wonder what other muscle they're going to bring in? I'd love to see some OT bounty hunters join the cast.