[Cadaverous Pallor]

I realized later that another thing bugged me about the planet's "role".

Spoiler:

When they bulldoze the sacred trees, Weaver yells at them about how there is something real going on down there, that they are connected to the planet mainframe, yadda yadda....but to me, this is a non-point, and a bit of a disappointment. Does it matter whether their religion is based in fact, or based on something that no one could prove, or if they worshiped their planet for no good reason?

In the face of "this Aywa thing is real" the villain says "it's just a bunch of trees" and that's supposed to make it ok. If that's a holy place for them, then they have no business destroying it without permission, and that should be the argument made.

I'd argue that they had no business on the planet at all without permission from the natives, but of course that is the entire point of the movie.