I purchased this Pritchardia as a hillebrandii and planted it out in the spring. I transplanted it once, but I dug it out cleanly with minimal disturbance to the root ball. 

You can clearly see the difference between the nursery leaves grown under shade cloth and the new open sky leaves. It has been a steady grower. 

But then I got this leaf.

And some spotting on other leaves.

A handful of fruit fly looking insects on the undersides of some leaves.

I really haven't let this palm dry out since it's gone in the ground. I always kept it moist, especially as it was adapting to increased sun exposure. My sand drains quickly and I generally don't have issues with anything getting too soggy, even in my wettest shadiest area. 

But there's a bunch of mulched leaves and twigs, pine bark and shredded redwood in the sand around this palm, which sits in a rocky recession. 

Pushing away an inch or two of topsoil, it's moist and sandy. Not wet. But could it be getting too soggy? Do Pritchardia hillebrandii like to dry out?

I don't know. Thoughts?

As far as I know, Pritchardia like it moist and can handle large amounts of water. My P. hillebrandii is in full shade (eight or nine years now) and is watered three times per week minimally. It’s in fairly fast draining fertile loam. It’s solid green and growing moderately fast. My other five Pritchardia (various species) are well watered as well but the ones in more sun yellow out a bit regardless of fertilizer frequency and are growing at a slower pace. 

Generally, Pritchardia do not transplant well. But good luck!