I assume this happened so that they could steal the loot?

Well, I think everyone here has pretty much said it, but I'll attempt to summarize. Stop being an elitist jerk, recruit gear is plenty sufficient for HM FPs, particularly if you know what you're doing and how to play your class.

If you're interested in that section of the lore, and connecting some of the events of KOTOR and KOTOR II to SWTOR I highly suggest reading some of the expanded universe novels, particularly the SWTOR tie in novels (most specifically "Revan") it will explain a lot.

Are you HIGH? Are you seriously telling me that you think BioWare should put restrictions on what alts I can make because you don't want to get your *** handed to you in PvP? What a crock of utter bull****. What about players that derive most of their entertainment out of PvE? I for one, don't do a lot of PvP, it just isn't really my thing. I just hit lvl 50 on my first toon, a Sorc, and you know what the first thing I went and did this week was: rolled 2 new toons to start playing through more 1-49 PvE content. Don't restrict the rest of us to your style of gameplay because you're tired of losing. Sure there may be some room for more class balance, but that doesn't mean that we should restrict what kind of fun everyone else can have in the meantime.

This is just another "give it time" type of thing. Everyone jumped out of the gate wanting to be bad guys, it's fun, and the PVE storylines for the 3 Imp toons I've played so far have been great. Eventually some will want to try something new and jump across the party lines. Our guild actually has a chapter in each faction, but we're far more active on the Imperial side.

Don't remember the exact quote, but it's one of the NPCs on Dromund Kaas talking about Lord Grathan: "he's a mad scientist type. He likes weapons, cyborgs, and ergonomic chairs."