But when it comes to the motivations of characters or details about the story, I believe that if it wasn’t important enough to make the final cut of the movie, there’s really no need for it to be added in the novelization.
I can forgive the opening crawls because it’s inevitable there needs to be some catch-up given the passage of time between movies.
It should be noted though that this is something the franchise has done for a long time, even as far back as the Original Trilogy.
If a plot detail is that important, show, don’t tell.