GM Chris said:
Edge of the Empire isn't about them, no. Totally agree.
But should a "Star Wars RPG" be about them?
Eventually, yes, a "generic, non-era specific" Star Wars RPG should include playable Jedi that are capable of some of the high-end tricks (Force Lightning, redirecting blaster fire, quasi-mystical healing, deflecting blaster bolts with their hands, etc). But as you said, Edge of the Empire is not that game, nor has it even pretended to be that game.
I'll call back to the early days of the SW Galaxies MMO, where Jedi PCs were an incredibly rare thing to see. That game, set in the Rebellion Era, really only started dying off when Jedi were allowed to be generated en masse, to the point where you couldn't swing a dead monkey lizard without at least a dozen Jedi trying to block it with their ligthsabers. While the combat upgrades caused more than it's share of the grief amidst the fanbase, the overabundance of Jedi drove way a large chunk of that fanbase.
Another poster in another thread put it pretty well that FFG's proposed plan of "three corebooks" mirrors the much-beloved Original Trilogy. The first installment are the riff-raff of the Outer Rims, independent operators that are simply trying to get by in a galaxy that's fallen more and more into the hands of an oppressive regime. The second installment will be for those brave enough to put aside their petty concerns and stand up to that regime for something better. The final installment will be for those who either strive to maintain or have rediscoverd the traditions of a noble order and the lore pertaining to the source of that order's strength, things that the oppresive regime is actively trying to suppress, with the chance to either become some of the greatest heroes the galaxy has ever known or some of its most vile villains.
Besides, it's sometimes better to start small and expand gradually, adding spices and ingredients to the stew as they are needed rather than just try to dump everything into a single pot and hope it works out. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.