I'm inclined to think that Arcann started out as a clear inferior to the Outlander for the reasons mentioned in the OP, even if he was still exceptionally skilled and extraordinarily powerful by any rational standard. If you refuse to kneel to Valkorion, Arcann gets taken out by a single blast of Force Lightning when he tries his assassination attempt. While it's definitely a powerful and flashy blast of Force Lighting, it has nothing on the protracted torrent of power that he straight up tanks until he runs out of platform to stand on if.... It certainly didn't blow a huge, gaping hole through any walls and kill everyone even remotely in range, anyway! However, after that Arcann has five more years to grow stronger while your character is in carbonite stasis. And given that he states to Vaylin that "Father held us all back, you most of all," and that Valkorion's contempt for his children doesn't seem to be rooted in how much power they can throw around, I think I can see how Arcann could have improved enough to edge out the Outlander for the time being. I mean, how much more powerful have our characters frown over the course of five in-universe years? We'll see how long that lasts, though. I doubt Arcann is going to be cutting down on his training regime any time soon, but I get the impression that the daily trials by fire that the Outlander is going to be putting up with as they try and chip away at the new dominant power of the galaxy is probably going to give them a more efficient workout, so to speak, than anything Arcann can do from his position of unchallenged power. I certainly didn't get the impression that the gap between he and the Outlander was all that large, anyway.

Yeah, my understanding of the theory behind it was that if a Sith takes multiple apprentices simultaneously, they run the risk of the apprentices uniting to usurp their master...which would actually weaken the Sith Order a great deal since you have an entire gang of wanna-be Sith Lords who only bested their master through superior numbers rather than truly surpassing them. And those same apprentices are likely going to be at each others' throats with their master out of the way too. If you want to use some of the Expanded Universe material, Palpatine did have his Inquisition set up to make use of lightsaber wielding Force Sensitives trained in the Dark Side. They were "just" considered elite agents rather than "real" Sith and I'm fairly certain Palpatine and Vader kept the best and "proper" Sith training to themselves to support that. In a galaxy where the Jedi Order is basically wiped out and Force Users seem to be regarded as mythical...things from another era, so the vast majority of Non-Force Sensitives are going to be surprised and untrained for it whenever someone whips out a lightsaber, Palpatine could probably get away with having a force of watered down Not-Sith. ...Of course, I suppose that hinges on whether you think that was just some legitimate, if outside the box, thinking on his part, or Palpatine blatantly exploiting a loophole and trying to paper it over with semantics

First, it was Senya that tossed your character back, probably taking them completely by surprise since they weren't expecting that from an ally and she wasn't really radiating hostile intent towards the Outlander. In terms of combat capability, it's been repeatedly shown throughout the stories that the non-Force Sensitive classes really formidable enough to be peers of the Jedi and Sith ones. This is a period of time where both the Republic and Empire are probably publishing entire libraries of field manuals covering how to kill Force Users and mass-producing equipment that might have been more exotic than practical in Star Wars settings where there are only two known Sith in the galaxy and a Jedi Master hiding out on Dagobah. Or equipment that just wasn't thought of by the writers at the time. In terms of story...yeah, the Emperor's interest probably does fit some classes better than others. Still, I think the Ziost storyline does provide a justification for all classes to ultimately have it. Still, for someone like the Smuggler or Bounty Hunter who, while incredibly powerful, did still spend most of their respective story do what other people wanted them to do for money, Valkorion's rhetoric about Reaching Your Full Potential and Throwing Off the Chains of the Past may be being thrown about more pointedly than some of the other classes

His justification for putting Lana in charge of Sith Intelligence if the Agent expresses displeasure with it is "The point of Sith Intelligence is that it is overseen by Sith," So, yes, while Darth Marr may respect the Agent's capabilities enough to basically give them the same treatment as the Emperor's Wrath ("Go do whatever you want as long as it doesn't conflict with the Dark Council...of which I am basically in charge of now"), he's committed to having a Sith at least nominally in charge. His exact motives for that are a little tricky to pin down in my opinion since the Imperial Agent really doesn't get a chance to discuss a lot of their major story developments with him. Is Darth Marr really just doing it purely because of a Sith Supremacy ideology? The Star Cabal got Imperial Intelligence disbanded in the first place by essentially framing it for incompetence, could Darth Marr just think it needed reform? That one might hinge on what you did with the Black Codex that would explain everything...but that thing hasn't been mentioned since the Class Story. Are there political considerations behind it, and Darth Marr is more doing it to throw the other Sith a bone while in practice Lana is probably very, very open to any suggestions the Agent makes? Who knows?! And on the Jadus front, the Imperial Agent was basically fighting someone more powerful than either the Sith Warrior or Inquisitor's final bosses...by Act 1. And holding their own long enough for Watcher 2's plan to kick in one way or another. So, yeah, by the time Shadow of Revan rolls by, I highly doubt being Lana Beniko's inferior in combat was Darth Marr's reason for putting her in charge. Especially since running an Intelligence service generally doesn't revolve around how hard you personally can hit someone in the face.

Except unless their hands are also being restrained, a sufficiently trained or disciplined non-Force user can take a shot, throw a grenade, or otherwise take action to force the Force User to shift their energy elsewhere or strain their concentration enough that they can't maintain that choke. The Force is an incredibly powerful and versatile tool, but the people wielding it still have limits. It takes concentration and effort to do anything with it and usually requires being able to see whoever you want to effect with it as well. Given the arsenals and skills the Non-Force using player characters are capable of bringing to bear, I would say they have quite a bit of wiggle room to work with there.

What the others said about his strength being based on Plot, and probably with some Rule of Cool thrown in. Using the in-game difficulty of bosses to determine how strong they "Really" are is kind of dodgey since a lot of that ultimately just boils down to what would make for a challenging boss battle than "realism". I suppose there may be some implied justifications for how the hell Revan could stand against so many of what were supposed to to be among the most powerful and skilled people in the galaxy, though.

Gah, that "wouldn't" was a typo. It should have been "would've". But yes, I'm pretty hard-pressed to think of any way the Imperial Agent could possibly avoid being shipped off to Korriban if they had any Force Sensitivity. And also what was said about the Heroic Moment legacy abilities only being added in later.

"You cannot wield the Force, yet you triumph over powers far greater" From Valkorion in Chapter 2 to the non-Jedi or Sith classes. And that's without going into how someone like the Imperial Agent wouldn't have been shipped off to Korriban if they were indeed Force Sensitive. While you can ignore all that and have your Troopers, Agents, Smugglers, and Bounty Hunters be Force Sensitives who just aren't trained in your head-cannon, it definitely seems a bit much to assert that it's impossible that any of them might just be skilled and well equipped enough to triumph without the Force in any way. The Heroic Moment and its skills are more of a gameplay mechanic than anything else.

I'm inclined to think that our characters totally can, it's just that Arcann has been able to use the five years we spent frozen to "level up" enough that he has enough of an edge to win that one fight against us. EDIT: Also, I'd be careful about putting too much stock into the cutscenes as being representative of our characters' power compared to Arcann's. They're clearly being kept short and generalized to avoid causing too much conflict with whatever class you're actually playing, but even as-is I feel they are doing a dubious job of that. (Hello Sorcerer/Sage that rushes forward to meet Arcann lightsaber to lightsaber or Shadow/Assassin that forgets to ignite the other half of their saberstaff!) I'm interpreting the actual gameplay as closer to being the Big Epic Duel with Arcann that was intended, so I don't think it's quite as one-sided as you may think it is. Especially since even in the cutscenes, Force Users hit him in the face and force him on the defensive during the opening of the cutscene!Lightsaber duel and Non-Force users shoot him in the armored!face and shoulder.

The Jedi Knight I can see, but the Sith Warrior only really speaks with the Emperor once during their class story, so I never really felt there was any particular connection there. Even the class-specific dialogue they get from the Emperor during Shadow of Revan and The Rise of the Emperor content struck me as more mocking of that relationship than anything else. As for the Inquisitor...technically putting up with Force Ghosts that may not have their best interests at heart in exchange for power is old hat to them by KOTFE, but if their history or the unique benefits they enjoy from that compared to the other player characters has ever been brought up since their class story ended, I haven't seen it. =/ The Rise of the Emperor story does provide pretty decent justification for all classes to not only be on the Emperor's radar, but be fawned over by the time KOTFE rolls around. Oh, I know! And it can be a bit silly when a rifle-using class does it, but I just find it especially ridiculous looking when the Commando decides to holster a 50-pound assault cannon back across their back. Bonus points if it happens in the middle of a fight so they holster, draw their pistol, and then draw the assault cannon again because the gameplay started up again. Especially if the cutscene as them get knocked back for fall. Then it looks like they were dragged down by the weight of that thing as much as the force that struck them. XD

At the very least, playing an Inquisitor or Consular leads to a very silly silly moment in Chapter 8 where Though, I suppose Commandos might have it worse since every time the action cutscenes roll around, they apparently decide they are so awesome that the need to handicap themselves by strapping an assault cannon almost as big as they are to their back and shooting at people with their dinky little Plot Pistol instead

Hm. As far as the Bounty Hunter goes, I have been a inclined to think of it as being weird for them to be The Outlander. Though purely because of the leadership and potential management responsibilities that role winds up entailing. Then again, the Imperial Makeb story basically has all of the classes leading a Special Operations team in a desperate attempt to save the entire Empire from getting crushed by the Republic, so I suppose it's really not that much of a stretch. ...Also, they're one of the two non-Force sensitive classes that don't look silly whenever the cutscenes have them menace people with the Plot Pistol! As far as the whole Force User vs. None-Force user thing, hasn't SWTOR been pretty good about not marginalizing the latter? Yes, Jedi and Sith are elite combatants who can rip through entire squads of your average soldier, but running into NPCs who have apparently killed "regular" Jedi or Sith before isn't all that uncommon in the game, and the playable non-Force Sensitives are Super-Mega Elites who can and do go up against Jedi and Sith who are similarly Mega-Elite even by the standards of their respective orders and more than hold their own. Off the top of my head, the only exceptions to that I can think of are in the Agent story. And in the Smuggler story.

I'd argue that fighting Jedi and Sith for non-Force Users is somewhat different in the SWTOR era than some of the other settings. Jedi and Sith are everywhere here, and pretty much anyone involved in the war is going to run into one or the other eventually. This is a time when cortisis-woven vibroblades are a dime a dozen and lightsaber-mitigating energy shields are...maybe not common, but no doubt readily available to individuals as ridiculously skilled and/or connected the non-Force Sensitive classes. Also, techniques for how to properly engage them are probably much more widely taught and constantly developed, again since most soldiers on both sides of the war are bound to run into a fully trained Jedi or Sith on the battlefield sooner or later. The codex even flat out states that the members of the Imperial Guard are completely capable of dueling Jedi and Sith toe-to-toe. As far as Arcann and Force users in general go, The Force is an extremely powerful and versatile tool, but generally requires concentration and being able to see whoever you want to effect to work and the arsenals the non-Force Sensitive classes are bringing to bear are also similarly dangerous. ...Alternatively, Arcann might have actually been genre savvy enough to know that killing someone with a lightsaber is a way more sure-fire way making sure someone is dead in Star Wars than hoping a fall into a seemingly bottomless pit will end them!

Yeah, I don't think there is anything "weak" about the Sith Warrior, especially compared to the Sith Inquisitor. Whereas a significant portion of the latter's story is all about going planet to planet to augment their power, the Sith Warrior pretty much just steamrolls through their enemies without needing to rely on the scraps left over from dead Sith Lords. It's especially noticeable if you compare the cutscenes in their respective stories. The tool comment is...kinda of valid? I guess? The Sith Warrior does spend most of their story as an enforcer and actually ends it that way too, but they're actually given quite a few chances to build their own power base even under the strict scrutiny of their master. Actually, that seems to be the primary difference between them. The Sith Warrior mainly seems to deal with "conventional" personal and political power while for the most part the Inquisitor sticks with Sith Magic and a smattering of politics in their story, which is really a shame. They aren't really allowed to be nearly as cunning in their stories as the "Palpatine" class should be. =/