So more like the old Star Wars: Galaxies, then.

Several issues with that comparison. No one is trying to charge a monthly subscription for GoT nor are hundreds of hours of entertainment expected from it unlike an MMO. When people go through a game of thrones season, they generally watch it once and move on. This is the same issue with swtor, except this an MMO which needs re playable progressive, repeatable content to maintain it. Doing a story is nice but every theme park mmo needs "rides" and for swtor the story is the only ride that they are releasing isn't great for replay ability. It's such a shame too, they could have done so much more. If they focused less on story and innovated on other areas from the start of development of swtor, it could have had legs to stay the distance. They could have done dynamic movement based combat, pod racing, properly fleshed out space components. They could have capitalize more on the nature of each classes. Bounty Hunters could have bad PvP bounty lists on PvP servers, Siths could make power plays in some sort of PvE political hierarchy system. They also had one of the best IPs possible to introduce some really interesting and fun MMO mechanics. But I guess innovation is too much to handle for EA. The story elements albeit quite enjoyable, is more "safe" and doesn't cater to longevity very well unlike more repeatable content.

I made a post in a previous thread pointing to a possible solution:

It truly does baffle me. People were thanking Bioware for making companions so ridiculously OP that they can easily do all solo content for them, in addition to thanking them for removing what little difficulty there was left in solo mode. Also the ability to solo much of the GROUP designed content so they didn't have to interact with others.....in an MMORPG......

How about the devs introduce difficulty sliders to the companions and to heroics? Normal and Hard. Setting the difficulty slider to hard for companions has the following effects: significantly nerfing the companion to the point where the player needs to pay more attention in PVE or risk dying if they pull too much. To incentivize this kind of play, the devs could introduce some small reward for the increased difficulty. Perhaps a small credit boost to all mobs defeated while Hard mode is enabled (10% -15% maybe?) in addition to achievements to completing missions when the companion is on higher difficulty. 2+ Heroics on hard: can only be completed solo if both the companion is quite high level and the player character has very good gear or 2 players with their companions. Players who do this could a small reward with extra tokens for gear and/or credits/achievements etc. There, everybody wins. Players can have their companions at their current power level if they wish. Players who want the challenge and want to be more influential in their battles can do so while getting a small reward. No one has to lose diminish their SWTOR experience by repeatedly dismissing their companions, artificially gimping them by turning off abilities or any difficulty spike that they don't want.

I cannot speak for the power level of companions at high levels. But when I was doing the lower level sith inquisitor storyline for the second time (played before for a time a couple years ago) I actually was lamenting the prospect of getting my first comp. This resulted from leveling up JK with my companion simply being apparently considerably more powerful than I with more health and capable of more damage. It resulted in every mob encounter, almost regardless of the content, being a complete steam roll with no with input required from me whatsoever. It was a tad disappointing. I don't want the game played for me by an AI. Someone mentioned earlier about someone's ego needing a checking because they were complaining about their companions being more powerful than they were. I think they need to double check what kind of stories and game they are playing. Quick reminder: the story is trying to give the impression that the character you play is of crucial importance to the galaxy. You repeatedly are asked to stop super weapons, taking down entire ships full of enemy troops and "save the galaxy." So you'll forgive me when I complain that my companion is far more powerful than I am. That my character has a supposedly crucial role to play but that impression gets quickly muted when my supposed "companion" (not the other way around) makes my character's role seemingly redundant.

I posted a thread on something quite similar to this:

It's the typical MMO paradigm of: Do PVP to get more gear to do more PVP. Do PVE to get more gear to do more PVE. How fun it is

WHY? If it's true, then I wish I knew it before I got level 42 with one

I'm sure if they did revert it back, they'd probably get even more people complaining on why they didn't keep the old layout. You simply can't please everybody.

There are no new species. Just the opportunity to unlock pre-existing species for class .i.e being able to use chiss as a jedi.

But he does have stupendous amounts power; in his imagination.

Here's a suggestion: Use paragraphs!

Fantastic idea! I would imagine it would be pretty easy to load your character models in cut scenes and such since that stuff is all stored anyway.

Not on my PVP server. There was almost a couple of dozen imps and reps and not one of them attacked each other. Heck, even one rep saved me from dieing even though he could have just one shotted me.