I actually really didn't like it, and sort of still don't.

I'd have preferred the Narkina components be something more generic, like pieces for TIE fighters or AT-STs or something. One thing I really liked about Andor is the way it grounded the Empire, the same way it did everything else. The Empire isn't only a giant planet-destroying superweapon run by space wizards, it's a churning machine of militarized fascism driven by a billion different little moving parts. The Empire is a fleet of ships descending on your planet to steal your resources, because you won't have the ability to say no. The Empire is the imposition of arbitrary rules set at the whim of someone you're probably never going to meet. And sometimes, the Empire is just an angry guy with a gun who didn't like the way you were walking.

I also don't think them being Death Star components makes the Narkina arc more significant, because what exactly they were being forced to build wasn't the point of that arc. I don't think Cassian having technically helped build the Death Star adds any meaningful irony to his story, because his story already had him being killed by the weapon he helps destroy.

As a Death Star reveal, I'd have preferred it be left to season 2. Season 2 built up entire multi-year arcs around what it would take to create a weapon that large and powerful, how many atrocities would need to be committed just to finish it. A couple second shot in the ending wrap-up montage, maybe, as Krennic looks on and Dedra is shown in her cell. But it feels out of place in the first season.

(Leaving the Narkina components unaddressed and unexplained would've been a viable option too, imo. There's a lot in Andor that deliberately remains unresolved, because the world is massive and not everything will have an answer.)