Oh, you're definitely not the only one, I find this one of the silliest ideas I've heard so far. Sure, I get the appeal of having your companions along with you for this, but their abilities are quite different from the ugly droid's, both in offense as well as in healing.
Your Trooper problem is silly, though. Yes, some of them would still have worse gear, but I don't see why you would not be constantly upgrading their gear with whatever gear you remove from yourself or your main companion - after all, the Trooper crew is all using the same stats and gear.