Just one thing, the Jedi "Classes", were a lot better handled in KOTOR 1 and 2, since you chose force powers, abilites, etc...Your character did have a speciality, but was not that pigeonholed, it was common a Consular gom melee for instance.

Don't feel so bad, in wars it's common for Jedi and Sith to lose Lightsabers, some of them eve have some spare ones for these times.

One thing from an old WoW player, that started heppening only after Burning Crusade. Before that there was a severe imbalance towards Alliance, then the Blood Elves came along and every kid who wish he could be "Legolas" switched sides. Now, on the topic at hand. It's simple, it's the storylines, the Imperial ones are umpredictable, full of plot twists and you can expect everything from everyone, there's more feeling of real "danger". With the republic, what i saw is that the stories are more straightforward, and that is cool, but at the same time there's less mistery.