Good and Evil in Roleplaying

As I play through the Star Wars universe one thing continually bugs me and that is the concept of good and evil.  It is mostly based on the dark and light sides of the force and the real problem behind it works well when you are creating a movie with a set storyline but is frustrating in a world filled with real people.  There are decision points throughout the game that aren't clear as to what is good and what is evil and many times I will see +dark or +light pop up on my screen and think to myself... really?

In the climatic scene in the first film, Luke Skywalker along with hundreds of other Republic pilots attack the deathstar.  Now imagine there's a young boy named Billy on the deathstar that recently graduated from school and needed a job.  Billy's lived on a planet dominated by the Empire his whole life and when the opportunity is given to join a top secret project with great pay he jumps at the chance.  He works hard and sends his paychecks back to his ailing parents with the hope that someday he can afford to start a small business back on his homeworld.  Luke and his X-Wing crush Billy's dream in a single shot and his parents are left with nothing but memories.

Is Luke's action good?  No.  Is it evil?  No.  The determining factor in how you view the act is individual point of view but the act isn't inherently one or the other.

This happens over and over in games and unfortunately most times the best rewards come from playing the extremes and in real life no one is an extreme.  Look to actions like the torture at Guantanamo, the Russian revolution, carpet bombing Germany or the Crusades and you will find well meaning people making decisions that ultimately in retrospect can be viewed as evil but it also depends on your point of view.

That's where Star Wars: The Old Republic really messed up.  They decided to use the paragon system from Mass Effect 2 when a much better alignment system had been in use by World of Warcraft for almost 10 years.  The paragon system works ok in a single player game but it is a bit funny that even Bioware changed the system in Mass Effect 3 making SWTOR look dated in comparison.

I would have much preferred a system with the following factions at launch:

Light/Dark
Republic/Empire
Mandolorian
Hutt

Only Force sensitive people would even have access to the Light/Dark tree as it is currently stupid that classes like Troopers and Bounty Hunters get light or dark points.  Either way it isn't like they can use the force.

It's too late to change but it frustrates me every time my Agent is faced with a decision.