I dig it for all the reasons Gecko mentioned. I don't even hate it on Wedge or Luke. I know people love Engine Upgrade, but say a 31 point Wedge that has lots of green moves and Crack Shot or Lightning Reflexes or something looks pretty decent to me. 32 points for Lone Wolf and he's a straight up nasty joust that has the PS to prevent arc dodgers from taking advantage of him.
Agreed - I think Engine Upgrade has become a bit of a (n expensive) crutch for a lot of players, and not just on the X-Wing but on a lot of ships. If you're going to fly a T-65 effectively, you need to not be afraid of using that k-turn, repositioning and planning your movement a round or two ahead.
Add elite talents like Predator or Lone Wolf to named pilots and you're good to go.
You are right. I used to try and hunt pre nerf Phantoms with Luke with R3-A2, VI, and EU and failed horribly, because the rest of my list suffered badly from not having those 4 points. Once I let go of the EU my lists became a lot better.
Still wouldn't field a PWT or non doom Lambda without it, though, it is just too strong on large bases.