I mean, it does also illustrate how the empire's strength lies in numbers and resources, and not in superior skill. There's some evidence that stormtrooper accuracy is a lot better than popular media gives credit for (e.g. "these blast points are far too accurate for sand-people,") and the only reason stormtroopers miss as much as they do in the movies is because they are under Vader's orders not to injure Luke and Leia, which may or may not be true, but the battle on endor shows how susceptible the armor is to guerilla warfare that does, in fact, utilize those lower-tech weapons. I'm sure if the empire cared enough about the efficacy of the armor, they could develop a suit that incorporated shield technology and win battles with a fraction of the troops they use, but again, the suit's primary function is to mark these shock troops as the face of an insurmountably vast empire. I would not be surprised if the poor defensive qualities of the armor are intentional, to foster a strategic message to the empire's enemies that says "we don't care how many you kill, there will always be more."
There's a little detail in Tie Fighter media that I like, where the Tie Fighter pilots love the fact that they don't have shields or any fancy fly-by-wire stuff in their fighters because it makes them "real pilots", compared to rebel pilots who have astromechs, shields, and hyperdrives. Extrapolated out a bit, and you could interpret the Empire as constantly sabotaging its own military effectiveness because of a toxic bravado that has been allowed to infect its military at all levels, which is pretty compatible with the Empire's implied fascist ideology (that the movies don't go too much into detail about).
So storm troopers could have Heinlein-esque power suits, but they all think that having something like that is for wimps, all the way up to the top of the chain of command.
I mean, it does also illustrate how the empire's strength lies in numbers and resources, and not in superior skill. There's some evidence that stormtrooper accuracy is a lot better than popular media gives credit for (e.g. "these blast points are far too accurate for sand-people,") and the only reason stormtroopers miss as much as they do in the movies is because they are under Vader's orders not to injure Luke and Leia, which may or may not be true, but the battle on endor shows how susceptible the armor is to guerilla warfare that does, in fact, utilize those lower-tech weapons. I'm sure if the empire cared enough about the efficacy of the armor, they could develop a suit that incorporated shield technology and win battles with a fraction of the troops they use, but again, the suit's primary function is to mark these shock troops as the face of an insurmountably vast empire. I would not be surprised if the poor defensive qualities of the armor are intentional, to foster a strategic message to the empire's enemies that says "we don't care how many you kill, there will always be more."
There's a little detail in Tie Fighter media that I like, where the Tie Fighter pilots love the fact that they don't have shields or any fancy fly-by-wire stuff in their fighters because it makes them "real pilots", compared to rebel pilots who have astromechs, shields, and hyperdrives. Extrapolated out a bit, and you could interpret the Empire as constantly sabotaging its own military effectiveness because of a toxic bravado that has been allowed to infect its military at all levels, which is pretty compatible with the Empire's implied fascist ideology (that the movies don't go too much into detail about).
So storm troopers could have Heinlein-esque power suits, but they all think that having something like that is for wimps, all the way up to the top of the chain of command.