Going back to the Vong, it's quite funny that some people fume at them being used as a justification for the Empire, when even if you removed the Vong as a factor, a lot of people gravitate towards the Empire anyways. Even in the new canon, more than a few fans preferred the First Order to the Resistance, to the consternation of the SJWs.
I'd say it's the same reason why men never forget the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was this golden age of strength and martial prowess, where you had gladiator games on a regular basis, when masculinity was prized as a strength, when you had real men like Marcus Aurelius or Trajan ruling the block, and if you wound up with a corrupt shitbag like Nero or Caligula in charge, the Praetorians took care of that shit. Sure, there's still some black spots, like when Aurelian was killed by the Praetorians, or when emperors like Nero and Diocletian persecuted the Christians despite Christ preaching a policy of peace towards the Empire, but aside from them, people still lived under a system that promoted strength and decisiveness, something men miss today as they live under democracies that favor less masculine values.
In the same vein, the Galactic Empire is, at the very least, a system of meritocracy. The Emperor was a minor noble who rose through the ranks because he was popular with the Senate. The leader of the military was a former slave who was F-Zero racing as a living before he became a career soldier who won battles that the Jedi Council thought was lost. The top navy man was an alien from a race few people knew about, let alone accepted, and they let him in because he was genuinely smart. People rise in the Empire because they're competent, and they're sacked if they prove to be idiots. Vader allowed that officer in ANH and General Veers in ESB to back-talk him when they're bringing up legitimate concerns, but Admiral Ozzel genuinely screwed up and was promptly executed. The Empire funds large-scale construction projects, innovates new technologies like Death Stars and cloaking devices, protects worlds with Star Destroyer and Stormtrooper patrols, and they ensure everyone is held to the law.
Compare that with the Republic, which isn't even a system. The Rebels and the Jedi are fighting to restore something which doesn't even work. All we know of the Republic is that it was always keked by rich assholes, with Jedi cultists serving as their Jannisaries; especially because the Jedi only pick the youngest so they can indoctrinate them better. They impose a child tax of grabbing Force-sensitive babies that they brainwash at an early age, and they view natural things like worrying for one's parents as a problem, because that's attachment to earthly things. But they don't have a problem when they attached their entire order to an earthly government run by rich assholes who, as we see later, have no problems writing off the entire Jedi Order as traitors when a popular senator told them so.
And unlike Luke's Jedi Order, the Jedi of the Old Republic served at the behest of the Senate, which means that if your poor ass is too inconsequential for the Senate to give a shit about, your cries for help will go unanswered by the Jedi. Just ask Anakin's family. At least when the Empire enslaved people, it was because they could be a potential threat (the Mon Calamari) or they were sheltering enemies of the Empire (the Wookiees). What crime did Anakin and his mother do to warrant being enslaved to Gardulla the Hutt? I suppose it's being born on the wrong planet. You can whine all you want about the Sith being at fault, but really, they were only able to manipulate things because the Republic was so broken.
Meanwhile, once the Sith went into the limelight as space sovereigns instead of space Illuminati, they actually acted somewhat responsible in terms of bureaucracy; competent people were promoted, incompetent baboons were dealt with. The Hutts, who once ruled Tatooine as their private fiefdom, were now forced to pay taxes, and their smugglers were even forced to dump their space coke at the sight of an Imperial cruiser, like what happened with Han Solo. Law and order finally came to Tatooine, not by the point of a Jedi's lightsaber, but by the barrel of a Star Destroyer's turbolaser cannons. Oh, and by the way, once the Empire is gone, Tatooine is back to being scum central, with criminals taking over entire districts, as we see in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.
It's just that the good guys have no plan aside from "let everyone do as they want." They have no plans to build a robust nation, they have no plans to keep corruption to a minimum so that no Sith can pull the same shit they did back in the Prequels, no, instead, what we see in both canons is that the good guys LET corruption return into galactic politics, as we see with Borsk Fey'lya, Thrackan Sal-Solo, and even in the new canon with the Senate being bought off by the First Order to not take action against obvious enemies. The Rebels weren't building a robust state free of the Empire's flaws; they were there to tear things down, but not built anything in its place. Anyone with a modicum of historical knowledge knows that's a recipe for disaster. At least, even the French Revolutionaries replaced the Bourbons with Napoleon to restore order.
Maybe it's all due to the fact that Lucas was a hippie and the hippies don't believe in building empires or systems of governance. Maybe Lucas was following in Tolkien's footsteps of hating empires. But at the end of the day, people become Imperial fans because as evil as the Empire is, at least, it is a system that can work, especially when the Sith fire people for being incompetent numbskulls, while the Jedi tolerate open political corruption so long as the Senate supports them.
I would also add, that I forgot to include in my original post, but do people think that Luke should have had a legion of Jedi out of the gate? By the time Luke had the resources, time and experience to start rebuilding the Jedi Order in 11 ABY, it had been 31 years since the Second Jedi Purge. Even the young Jedi alive were middle aged at least, and most of them weren't practicing Jedi for fear of their lives for those 31 years, as those who were practicing ended up dead as said, like Qu Rahn, or recruited by the Inquisition, and they'd be even less inclined to join Luke. What good would a bunch of people who used to be Jedi over 30 years ago to help Luke, who has been a Jedi for around a decade by that point.
Many of the Jedi who survived Order 66 were eradicated by Vader, the Inquisition, the Shadow Guards, the Emperor's Hands, etc.. Emperor Palpatine might have wanted them to live so that they can hang their heads in shame, but many of his underlings wanted them as target practice, and he didn't stop them.
It usually goes like this:
"Hello, I am Jedi Master Plot Device, nice to see you! Now that I am here, I would be more than happy to aid your rebel cause against the Empi-oh, wait, who is that a guy with a red lightsaber?"
*DEAD*
Hell, some Jedi like Qu Rahn and Shaak Ti didn't even die to Vader, but to his underlings, like Jerec and Starkiller. Despite being Jedi Masters, they didn't even get the dignity that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had of dying to a Sith Lord's blade; they got killed by some random chumps the Sith uplifted to be their attack dogs.
To my understanding, most of Luke Skywalker's recruits were either youngsters from the post-Empire era, or former Alliance soldiers like Leia Organa Solo or Kyle Katarn. As a former soldier himself, Luke probably preferred people who had military experience, especially since he does teach them to wield the Force like a weapon.
