So, I had a revelation recently. With the recent prevalence of Swarmish ideals, where 4 small ships on the Rebels' side in particular has become the norm, putting Squad Leader on a non-named pilot is actually pretty feasible.

Consider the following:

A Green Squadron [A-Wing] + Squad Leader costs as little as a Rookie Pilot, and is Level 3.

This is a higher level than the Blue Squadron pilots that people love to make Hypermobile and/or give a HLC. It is also a higher level than the Rookie Pilots that are a staple of Rebel Fleetbuilding. Heck, if you want to run an Outer Rim Smuggler, Rebel Operative, or Grey Squadron pilot, the GSp Squad Leader's got them covered as well.

Moreover, the A-Wing is more survivable than the X-Wing, as barring horrible dice luck or undodgable damage (e.g. Proton Bombs, a Vader crewmember, et c.), that extra evasion die will block at least 1 more hit per game, making it worth more than the X-Wing's 1 extra Hull. Giving a spare action to your harder hitting ships is even likely to make up for the reduced damage!

On the other end of the spectrum, the affordability of Squad Leader is less of an issue when you've got Howlrunner and Mauler Mithel.
The extra action added to a single ship also doesn't matter as much when you're running 7.

However, if you're looking to cause some havok, you could have two Bounty Hunters alongside a Black Squadron Squad Leader (with 18 points left over for upgrades, enough for 2x Heavy Laser Cannons and some bombs ), or soon alongside a Royal Guard Squad Leader (with 10 points left over, for 2x Gunners)... but you can already do similar shenanigans with Howlrunner in the Squad Leader seat.

I've built a few squads that included a Green Squadron Pilot with Squad Leader, and these squads have collectively gone 3-1. The rest of the squad is always composed of some combination of Blue Squadron Pilots, Rookies, and/or Gold Squadron Pilots.

It works pretty well because the A-Wings are typically very low-priority targets, and so they fly around unmolested and give actions to your other ships if the opportunity presents itself (for example, to give your B-Wing a Target Lock in addition to his Focus for a Range 1 shot). If for some reason your opponent does make the A-Wing a high priority, the A can always take an evade action for himself and make your opponent waste his attacks away when he could otherwise be landing easy hits on your B- or Y-Wings.

The next variation on this theme that I would want to try looks like this:

• Green Squadron Pilot + Squad Leader
• Blue Squadron Pilot + Sensor Jammer
• Blue Squadron Pilot + Sensor Jammer
• Gold Squadron Pilot + Ion Cannon Turret + R2-D2