• Rey performed tight maneuvers in terrain that she knew with a ship that wasn't the best for it, but one that's also never been shown to be less capable than fighter craft – and has out-flown fighters a lot of TIEs during the series with a strong pilot.
• Those exact same maneuvers were performed by TIE pilot(s) in unknown terrain.
• Poe outflies hosts of TIE pilots in their element, and bests them all both in dogfighting and in flight.
Rey's been shown to be able to keep up with TIE pilots' capabilities – which is impressive, but Poe drops them out of the sky like they're nothing. There's no question that Poe is a vastly superior pilot, and his feats of flight blow Rey's out of the water.
I'm curious what specifically you find about Rey's piloting that makes her stand out more than that.
Poe's hat is 'excellent pilot', it's what he does. The First Order knows his name. Of course he's a good flyer. Rey's piloting skills, with the best possible interpretation, amount to a part time job, probably not under fire. And there's question marks under even that much. Yet she's able to hold her own against two professional pilots on her first try in a totally unfamiliar craft that she considers garbage.
...but she's not relying on pure Force ability alone.
She's flighting with her well-honed melee combat skills – specifically with a quarterstaff which make her attacking form with a lightsaber far from expected combat styles. She's fighting a much more skilled, but grievously injured opponent. Her embracing her Force abilities to help her is what gives her the edge that she needs to overcome the odds that she couldn't have without them.
Essentially her fighting with only her trained melee prowess is slightly under what Kylo Ren is managing while injured (and also, he's fighting to stop her, not kill her as I've brought up before). When she embraces the Force, she barely tips the balance in her favor enough to best him.
Staff combat isn't very relevant in lightsabre combat-they're supposed to be almost impossible to use off the cuff, they're weightless, for example. And she's fighting someone above her paygrade on her very first try, where Anakin and Luke had years to train and practice before they got into their first lightsabre duel (and both lost
hard the first time they tried it against a superior opponent.)
Rey said she has flown in Jakku's atmosphere before. What kind of vehicles do you think were available to her? She's clearly in the vicinity of trade routes that get much traffic. What transports stuff in those routes? Freighters. What's the Millennium Falcon? A Freighter.
Taking on two TIE fighters with the help of a good shot is no where near as accomplished as what Luke pulled off. I can't believe people can downplay how amazing Lukes feats of strength are to make a point lol.
Nobody is downplaying Luke, but he wasn't alone, had lots of help, was used to shooting small targets at speed, and didn't get into Lightsabre duels and force power contests in his first movie. For his trench run he had Biggs and Wedge acting as human shields so he could survive long enough to take the shot, and still needed Han to rescue him. None of which means he's a bad pilot.
If Rey had a job as a freight pilot, why can she still barely afford food? That's a pretty useful skill.
To toy with somebody, time needs to be on your side. Ren's grievously wounded. The Planet is exploding. Even if he doesn't consider them a threat, he should still be ending things quickly in case he passes out. If it had just been framed a little differently, I wouldn't be whining so much.
