Where was it said non Jedi ever used sabers?
Han beat a dead Tauntaun with one, and considered slicing up a net with one (which is really all your average person could accomplish today with a cutlass). And if you’re including the ST, Finn actually fought with one.
Historically speaking as opposed to carrying another type of laser weapon. If laser swords are all the galaxy had as hand weaponry “for a thousand generations”, then technological development in the Star Wars universe took a very strange path.
The Jedi are supposed to be like Samurai. They probably had swords with physical blades early in their history.