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The giant reveal of the villain's forces is an obligatory moment of drama, setting up just how much the odds are stacked against the heroes. Think of the Fellowship watching the massed troops of Saruman march into the gorge of Helm's Deep. Jon Snow and the Wildlings witnessing the arrival of the Night King, who raises massed ranks of dead to serve as his army. The arrival of the Sardaukar to back up Baron Harkonnen.
Sometimes you want to keep the villain's strength secret, but there's nothing like showing it off to really get maximum doom value.
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
If these aren't crewed by Force Zombies or Palpa/Snokeclones of some kind, I'm going to be disappointed. Could you imagine? You're stuck down at the bottom of an ocean planet for who knows how long until the big boss decides it's a suitably dramatic moment. And that's assuming the big boss is still alive! Sure, you've been told there's a cloning facility for him nearby, but it's not as if you're allowed to see it and the clones might be different as well. All the while hoping nothing springs a leak that you're going to have to fix and clean up.
Star Wars starships are totally fine as underwater craft. The hydrodynamics are gonna be a lot different than zipping around in the vacuum of space, of course, possibly just limited to slowly moving. But the materials used are going to be a heck of a lot stronger than any realistic aluminum-skinned spaceship, and the hovering mechanisms we've seen are reactionless as far as I can tell. Really, the more ridiculous thing is just how many starships there are. Like, this is taking Offscreen Villain Dark Matter to a whole new ludicrous level. Are we leading up to a three-way fight of First Order versus Resistance versus Palpaclone&crew? Or are the writers just really stacking the deck against the Resistance a second time?
Transcript
Palpatine: I am pleased to see our first lucky winner here for the launch of my new company.
Kylo Ren: You think you can just come back from the dead and oppose the First Order?
Palpatine: The First Order is nothing next to the shopping and distribution network I have planned.
Kylo Ren: Your headquarters is literally in a multi-level pyramid, and you want people to assume you’re a legitimate marketing scheme?
[SFX]: Krack! {the sea floor shatters}
[SFX]: Rumble... {a giant star destroyer rises through the cracked sea bed}
Palpatine: Behold! The delivery fleet I have assembled!
GM: Thousands of giant ships breach the sea floor and rise up into the ocean above you.
[SFX]: Grgg-ggrrggmmm... {dozens, nay, hundreds more star destroyers rise through the sea floor}
Kylo Ren: Really? Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to hide a starship on the bottom of the ocean?
Anakin’s Voice: You think that’s ridiculous? Wait till you hear about our return policy. Ha ha ha haaa!