Oh Benton, sweet, innocent Benton....
I've been aching to gush about S2 of Mando, but sadly Shogun does not seem to be around, so I didn't bother. But this is certainly nice.
Congrats for taking the plunge! I hope you enjoy the journey. Mando is a truly great show, the most pirated show of 2020 and is the thing that made me learn to love Star Wars again, and S2....oh boy, you just wait....
S2 is by far the single best piece of new media I absorbed in 2020 (Crisis started in 2019, and even if it didn't, Mando was
probably better?), a bright shining star in 2020, and one of the single most amazing pieces of fiction I've EVER had the pleasure of absorbing. It starts with "episodic", moves into "more fanservice" and eventually gets to "Did I just see what I think I saw?" By the end of it, it is just pure magic, a real crowd-pleaser and something that feels like it was dreamed up in the most delirious fever dream of SW fans the world over. One episode in particular is said to have brought grown men to tears.
And course, Baby Yoda, whose existence is no secret by now, is just pure love.
Hardly surprising that you've heard of Luke's truly surreal appearance (which I've been told has brought many late-comers into the fold), but hopefully when you eventually arrive at it, the journey will be worth it. Even without the metric galaxy full of fanservice in S2, the show would have still been solid if it was just about a bounty hunter and his precious little baby.
On the topic of characters from the CGI cartoons showing up later, rest assured that just as Mando meets up with all these various characters for the first time, you can too, and still feel like you experienced something meaningful.
I know you've said your peace about a continued lack of interest in all things prequel-related, but there's a great quote that I've wanted to share that always makes me think of you. It's from one of my favorite Youtube reviewers, Jeremy Jahns, and it's in no way meant as a insult, but an encouragement to, as Obi-Wan once said "Take a step into a larger world" or perhaps broaden your "certain point of view".:
"[...] and this next part's the most small-minded thing? I was like 'I don't want to. I don't want to watch anything that might validate or legitimize the prequels'. Like I said, I already said, small minded *&^%. That's a child's mindset, that's....why would you not watch something that might be good, in fear that it might be good, and so good, it might make something else feel better? Growth? I mean, age, am I right? That's the good thing about age."
~Jeremy Jahns, on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars, SWTCW - Final Season (My Thoughts)"
Oh and by the way, when you finish Mando S2....stay through the credits. Yes, we have the very first STAR WARS POST CREDIT SCENE!

In any case, I genuinely hope you enjoy the show and all it's crazy twists and turns. It's a true gem and an inspired labor of love, and I genuinely can't wait to see the now confirmed "Mando-verse" that we all knew full well was going to launch out of this, because even though Disney has gone completely insane with the number of SW shows and movies they're putting out, this corner of it is looking AMAZING!

Not to spoil too much in advance, but if everything transpires as us true Rebels have forseen, future developments should be watched with great interest, for they shall be a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one! DO IT!
You know a show's gotta be damn good if it's timeslot is going to be filled by WANDAVISION!

[EDIT]: Oh, I totally forgot. One of the biggest things I enjoyed about Mando S2 was the reaction to it online. Watching reaction videos to two of the last few episodes of S2 online was absolutely magical. And the memes, oh my goodness the memes. I haven't had this much fun dropping into a subreddit every week since S6 of Legends of Tomorrow (which, if you don't get the reference; S6 of Legends was the "zero eff's given season" where they just did any old insane, comedic, high concept thing they felt like, to the point that Caty Lotz was hamming it up so much someone I watched it with asked me if she was drunk while they were filming) The memes for the show (particularly on the subreddit) were some of the funniest and most entertaining memes I've ever read and were arguably as enjoyable or more enjoyable than the show itself. I have any entire
subfolder on my computer chock full of meme images for that one 8-episode season and most of them are only from two or three specific episodes.
They're all my perfect babies and I love them all and it's almost hard to pick a favorite. George saying "It's like poetry, so it rhymes". The show being a trojan horse to smuggle in other stuff. Baby Yoda's love of cookies. Cap understanding the references. People who don't get the references awkwardly sitting there on the couch with the people who do. Steve Carrell from the Office freaking out about what's about to happen. Anything involving that scene with Old Man Luke at the beginning of the Last Jedi where he throws the lightsaber away. But my favorite one in particular had to be "Hey Dave [Filoni], how much fanservice?" [Kylo Ren]:
MOOOORE!!!