If Palpatine wore this:

it would be a cameo in cameo of the dictator whose path to power Palpatine's is based on. Would that break the laws of physics?

That would break the GALAXY

Based

I like it. Even better if it was on a locket which revealed Daniel Craig in First Order Stormtrooper armour.

I'll stop now.

Thank you! That is what defines a cameo.

I’ve been thinking exactly what this post says for a while now you did a great job at spelling it out.

@Swatteam123 you and me both buddy

Guest roles have their own problems though such as making the universe seem small by having certain characters pop up everywhere.

But yes if a character has actual importance and a role in the plot then it isn't a cameo.

It is true that "cameo" has been thrown around much too often, with most people using it not knowing exactly what the word means. However, no matter what phrase you use, the criticism still stands. "Cameo" is just an easy word to use as a label.

One of my primary critiques against the newest Star Wars shows has, indeed, been their excessive use of returning characters that we all know and love. There's nothing wrong with fan-favorite guest appearances, they can actually be really fun, but only in small doses. It's like candy: It's tons of fun in small amounts, but you start to get sick of it if you have too much at once. Take a look back at the lists of appearances provided in the OP. Between 2 television seasons (Mandalorian S2 and Bad Batch), at least 17 returning characters are featured. Many of them can be replaced without any significant changes. Ahsoka could have been any other Jedi, Caleb Dume could have been any other Padawan, Cad Bane could have been any other bounty hunter, and so on. Using the same characters in everything makes the Star Wars galaxy feel small and condensed. Even worse, some of these guest roles feel very forced and actually retcon established stories.

It's not usually the characters that are the problem, it's the amount of characters. It almost feels like the Book of Boba Fett writers knew that the story was dull, because in the final 3 episodes, we were treated to huge guest appearances by Luke, Grogu, Mando, Ahsoka, Cad Bane, Cobb Vanth, etc. The characters aren't the problem, but they are in the wrong show. By including these characters, they hijack the entire premise of the tone Boba Fett was going for. It's a problem when guest roles begin to take priority over main characters; Boba Fett is barely featured in the guest role episodes in his own show. Cad Bane can be treated as an exception, since he's a primary antagonist to Boba Fett in the finale, but it would have been much better if he was in the entire show up to that point, so we could feel the tension build-up between the two. Giving him a 5-minute introduction at the end of episode 6 out of 7 does indeed feel like a cheap, fan-servicey decision.

This raises another problem: Most of these "guest roles" count on the audience already knowing who these characters are. Almost all of them have a "hood" moment, where a character takes off their hood or mask to reveal their face to the viewer. It's treated as a grand moment, almost like Dave Filoni saying, "Wow, your favorite character is here! Isn't that awesome?" It can be fun, but the dopamine quickly wears off. It gets to a point where we're not watch The Mandalorian to see The Mandalorian, we're watching to see who else is going to show up. One of the main reasons I adore the first Mandalorian season is because it had amazing, well-developed original characters. Many of those same characters are pushed to the side in the second season in favor of fan-favorite guest characters, which is a real shame.

Of course, not all of these cameos/guest roles are bad. I absolutely loved Luke's inclusion at the end of Mando S2 because it made logical sense in the story and felt like a natural addition, because we had already been building to that moment. It had to have been Luke; no one else would've worked. Additionally, I've really been enjoying the recurring characters in the Bad Batch, specifically Gregor, Cut and his family, Orn Free Taa, Kamino, and the Syndulla clan, because they expand the lore and fill in essential galactic history what we were never privy to. Cameos/guest roles are at their best when they're occasional, logical, and natural. One of the reasons why I love Andor so much is because it focuses entirely on its main cast, similar to what the Mandalorian did in its first season. Sure, Saw is there, but he fits so well into the story that he never feels like a guest, he just feels like another character in the show. He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest examples of a guest role done right.

Cameos, guest roles, or whatever you may call them can be really fun, but they are much more fun in small doses. Unfortunately, with all the excitement that Mandalorian S2 and Book of Boba Fett received, I doubt that we'll see a change in the following years. Just thought I'd share my feelings on the matter seeing as it's being formally addressed.