This is probably a repost, but instead of building the death star, the empire could have purchased 3.3 million tie defenders.

I know I am not the first to say this but I will anyway.

Tie defender cost 300k credits and the Death Star cost 1 trillion. IMO a fleet of 3.3 million Tie Defenders are more worth it.

the galactic fleet has 25000 Star destroyers, each held 72 Tie fighters. Add 9000 from the first death star, we get 1,809,000 tie fighters, even when multiplied by 2, (accounting for possible ties stored on worlds, we get 3,618,000 ties. There could be more but we only know millions existed, we dont know how many ties there are.

instead of the Death Star, they could have replace up to 92% of ties with tie defenders. just imagine all the firepower they old have. The Death Star was centralized and crippled the economy plus after it destroyed Alderan, it only intensified the rebel spirit. after 20 years of construction, it was destroyed in minutes. What do you think.