Personal shield tech was not lost, it merely went out of fashion among larger armies. As pointed out, they used shields to protect buidlings during the movies, and project one out to space. Rebel fighters have shields, as do capital ships, so no, the tech was not lost.

Now, I'm going to stick to using a tie fighter cause its easier to explain. If I'm commanding a load of TIE Fighters, I'm not going to invest in parachutes for the ejection seat. They operate from a great big Star Destroyer, spending the majority of their time in space, so why waste money on something that may never be used?

The matierial - nope, if they were to have parachutes, they'd use a similar material to what we have, in fact I'd be willing to bet they'd probably use a thicker material. Due to the possibility of encountering more types of atmosphere, thinner, thicker etc, you'd have to cater for all eventualitites. Meaning that any parachute would have to be robust and heavyweight, preventing thinner gases from seeping through.

Jetpack in space for ejection? No, if I were to eject then the last thing I want to do is draw attanetion to myself, so having a trail of exhaust gases isnt a good idea. PLUS, again, this would be part of the seat, now the pilots kit, being too bulky to wear properly in the cockpit, and preventing harnesses operating correctly, as well as being far too dangerous. So, its now a jet capable seat, but as I said, we already know the seat is likely to have rockets to throw it clear of the ship. So, your down to limited fuel reserves anyway, as well as any life support systems. Maximum fuel you could carry is maybe ten minutes worth. In space, any momentum is going to keep you going, so get your direction wrong and you'll be far from the scene of the battle in no time. Even catering for an emergancy beacon, get it wrong and evacuation is going to become much harder.

Duke, what your talking about, and the specific role your giving them, won't add to gameplay, give you extra kills etc. The things your suggesting are life saving, emergancy pieces of equipment. Not weapons of personal destruction.

Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!