[talmand]

No, the idea was that the Empire was using clones for their pilots so they didn't give a crap whether they lived or died. Therefore they received the cheapest equipment possible. That way they could often win by sheer numbers. Only important people got nice equipment that would keep them alive.

On the other hand the rebels considered every pilot they had as rather important since they had so few. That, plus the fact they had so few in the first place, warranted more expensive yet more robust equipment.

So, as the rebellion continued, the rebels were winning more often than losing and were swaying more and more to their side. Which made it easier to obtain the same equipment. The Empire had to respond in kind because pilots started becoming important, especially the pilots that had learned how to win against superior equipment. Kind of sucks to lose your best pilots because you were too cheap to get them cheap shields. This led to the development of later TIE fighters that had shields and other "rebel" equipment. You didn't really see things like the TIE Interceptor's until Return of the Jedi time, which by then the rebels had the A-Wing to counter that as well.

This is the reason that TIE Fighter is one of the greatest games ever made. You don't know how much it sucks to face a highly trained opponent with superior equipment until you fly the TIE fighter into combat. It's like being the pilot of a flying trash can with two lasers attached to it. Also keep in mind that a common tactic of an X-Wing or Y-Wing pilot was to fully charge forward shields and just ram the poor guy in the TIE fighter. No need to debate who survived.