Spoiler for Rebels, but an old one (season 2):

I also dont like the blind Jedi in Rebels. He was actualy just 2 Episodes blind, now he does anything normal, just with a belt around his head. ANd actualy beeing blind is probably the worst thing I could imagine, it would have such an enormous effect of my life... losing a leg is peanuts compared to that... at least i imagine it that way...

In Rogue one the Blind guy and his friend, they were kind of okay, but they were more like "werido super dudes", not realy good or imaginatve.

I also would just stick with no. Piloting requires (good) sight.

I a gree with the idea that if he is Force Sensitive(as he seems to be) he can move freely by using the Farsight powers. Otherwise he must suffer the penalties (maybe slightly reduced thanks to Sense power) Even Kanan had clear problems dealing with his blindness before the Bendu helped him overcome them.

If he decides to be not Force Sensitive (as conflict seems a problem for him) he must suffer the full penalities and no piloting unless he buys the cybernetic eyes.

But even forcesight should not be sight. Forcesight shout have benefits when u use it, but should not be a full replacement. I dont know the rules to this power, but a "you can see, u dont need light" would be boring.

[...] if the GM is saying "I don't want to deal with this; it's too much and doesn't fit with the narrative I have in mind," then I think the player(s) should respect his/her wishes.

This is all that the GM should need to say. The books make it clear the GM is final arbiter. The players need to back down.

But what do I know, when I say a GM should have the option of saying 'no' to Hutt fighter pilot, the response was basically a lynch mob.

But what do I know, when I say a GM should have the option of saying 'no' to Hutt fighter pilot, the response was basically a lynch mob.

why not? was it a blind hutt fighting pilot?

I say list all the possible scenarios where he could a) be disadvantaged, or b) feel like an idiot, because of blindness. For instance, being unable to see (or, because it's just a color, sense) traffic lights while speeder driving.

Of course, I think that you should definitely not quit the game just because of one pushy player. Give it a rest, then pick it back up again if and when when you feel like it.

Farsight doesn't work in a starfighter combat scenario since it allows to see up to medium range on the personal scale, and space combat happens at the planetary scale.

I need to remind you that close encompass all personal range bands and then some more. You totally can fly into medium personal scale range in space combat, it not even that uncommon to do so, and anything above close is based on sensor data anyway, meaning you don't need to see further as engaged ;-)

This holds to some degree even true for close range combat, as your will thrust your hud and targeting computer informations to fire at the pip and not at the ship. At ~600m and above it becomes pretty pointless to shoot at the ship, you start shooting where the ship will be when your projectiles reach it. Blaster and laser fire in star wars is pretty slow. So you usually rely on your hud again, which is engaged with you, so farsight should be again sufficient. You can that way build even a blind, force sensitive sniper, just give him some Fabritech AG/L MK. III Targeting Goggles. It should not provide any other benefits on personal scale, but the goggles should be able to mark your targets and allow you to shoot beyond your short visual range from farsight. And for gunners in space ships they should be essential equipment anyway.

And btw, hut fighter pilots are fine, they just don't fit into many fighters even when they are young huts. At the other hand a HWK-290 can be modified into a real nice fighter and even a older hutt can pilot one just fine.

On a related note, last night one Thermal Detonator incapacitated 3 PCs... the original target, the Clone Pilot, was blinded. The Doctor/captain lost his left arm. The Commander/ex-Imperial took the weakest crit of the three. They are in the middle of a siege on a hidden assassin's guild base. The other half of the group are in different areas of the base. Unexpected rescue mission!

The Clone pilot intends to only get one cybernetic eye but use his armor helmet to enhance his vision to make up for the deficit of only one eye (tactical readouts & alerts that pop up on-screen). So the plan there is 1 difficulty upgrade to certain checks when not weaing the helmet, mitigated when the helmet is on (obviously I'm going to knock his helmet off here and there for dramatic tension).

Why get only one eye when he could get two? Is he short on cash?