If Cameron has any balls he will go the total war/protracted war route, and probably has enough clout to get studio execs to shut up if they object. The only way the stupid Groot/Baby Yoda character works is if there's some sort of bait-and-switch where the execs are initially told it's just a cute focus-tested mascot character for the series but is actually a Chekhov's gun, a Na'avi child who grows up against the backdrop of the war and eventually takes up the mantle of the older generation's anti-colonial/anti-imperialist struggle after that generation is inevitably overwhelmed and devastated by genocide.