Ok, for the purpose of argument (which is, in part, the spirit in which the thread was started):
IF the ranking/advancement system of vanilla 2142 were possible to port into a mod, I suppose it would be semi-possible to have a sort of "Jedi Track" where someone could focus on just one class, building up Jedi abilities and skillzorzages, to represent the dedication required to become such Jedi.
Unfortunately, everyone would have the option, and it wouldn't take long before people were stat-padding just to get all upgrades, and everyone would have the option of being a Jedi soon enough. In this sense, SW:Galaxies is probably the best corollary.
I played the free 2-week demo of SW:G a few years ago (nearly non-stop, as I didn't have school/job at the time), and it was something I nearly paid money to play. It just became less and less fun the more I played. Granted, that's my personal view of "the grind" and pay-to-play MMORPGs. But, I could see what the Jedi deal was all about, there, too. Sure, not everyone could be a Jedi -- unless they started a new character. But the idea of the game was to build virtual communities, and as I understand it, more players were lost by all the mucking about with Jedi and trying to balance things with other classes.
To address Samuel_L_Jedi 's issue directly: Yes, it might get more people to download and play, initially. But, you have to remember that there is more than just "average player" disinterest which is keeping player count low. It's not that there isn't a Jedi class, or a Bounty Hunter class, or that you can't fly around in the Millennium Falcon (yet). The reasons are:
1. It's a newly released Mod. They've only had one release, and a patch when the 2142 update was released. If you've been involved in the modding community before, you know it takes time for the bugs to be worked out, new content to be added, and several releases before player counts start to climb. Many people wait until a Mod has matured before DLing and playing -- they don't want to get involved if they won't find it fun yet.
2. The Dev team have already stated that they're going to be releasing smaller-sized releases, more often, rather than big releases every six months or whatever the standard is for modding. This, in theory, may be a good idea. However, since making that decision, they've had several things which caused major delays -- so the first big update has been delayed more than expected. The 2142 1.4 release, web-page confusion, and loss of some of the Dev team haven't made the mod progress as hoped. Personally, I hope that after 1.2 is released, things will stabilize and they'll get into more of a release schedule. 
3. No need for the Devs to compromise the vision of the gameplay style they want just for more players. They're doing this because they like doing it, and because they like Star Wars. They may as well make it how they want. Enough people have said enough on this, already. Personally, I really loved the original Dark Forces; enough that I got the sequel, even though, personally, I didn't want to deal with the lightsaber stuff. Beyond that, every once in a while you'll be playing against somebody who's just so darned good (usually just on a lucky streak) that they may as well be a Jedi, anyway. You learn to stay away from 'em, or gang up.
4. Heck, everyone can already be a Jedi in this mod. All you've gotta do is limit yourself to knife use, and just get really, really good. 
5. Eventually, maybe someone will make a Jedi-mod for FS, an add-on where Jedi are included in all their glory. The same with Clone Wars era content. Either could be added by the Dev team, if they get the mod to exactly where they want it and still want to add more. Yet, if I were to go the add-on mod route, I'd want to wait until FS had plenty more content and more bugs had been worked out.
Just becuse we're lucky enough to be in on the ground-floor of FS' releases, doesn't mean we can expect it to be polished enough to draw players from the start. Even if they added Jedi, then there would be people who'd DL, play once, and say "Why can't I _____?" And leave, 'cause it's not what they'd hoped. I'd say to give it until this time next year. By then, a lot of the things the Devs want to give us will (hopefully) be in, and we'll see how many players they've got.
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a.k.a.: Grandma Tarkin // hQ.Terrorek
Today's spelling/grammar tip: There = a (sometimes conceptual) place. "There is my car." or "There is such a thing as magic." // Their = posessive. "Their meat is full of worms." // They're = contraction of <they are>. "They're crazy!" // "They're trying to put their shoes up there."
Closed Alpha Test & Deth..
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