My thought is that it’s revealing the construction and weak points of the death star. It may have been constructed in two hemispheres that were joined together, and that seam might have been the failure point where gassed were released when the internal pressure got too high.

Except then we should see the two hemispheres blow out from each other a bit, which they don’t.

Honestly the original effects also had me going:

So I suppose it’s not that much worse with the ring

Edit: meant to reply one comment up. Too late now