It's kind of hard to judge how this will factor into plot economics since we don't know the run-time of the movie but I'm all for it if adds to the world-building. It also really needs to sets the stage for what is at stake & incentivizing them to venture out to an abandoned research station in the first place which would add weight to the impact of the success or failure of the mission.
I appreciate that Fede really does not want to overexpose the film prior to release and feel that some viral marketing dealing with the JACKSON colony could of been a nice way to satiate our desire for information without showing any of the actual film. Something like an in-universe promotional video soliciting volunteers for the JACKSON colony. Maybe an interview with a colonist 20 years prior to Romulus, where there happens to be a very, very slight flicker in the sky in the corner, barely visible & no attention drawn to it, that may or may not be the Nostromo blowing up (assuming the colony has been there a while and I this takes place in the same star system as Alien). Just ideas of course, but these things cost money. But if sets are already built, why not?
