Maybe the original Westworld had something to do with it? 😃

Androids were very familiar to general audiences by 1977. The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were often menaced by them, especially fembots. Maybe Lucas wanted to avoid androids for that reason?

How the Austin Powers movies got away with using fembot is beyond me. Universal definitely had a copyright on the name.

I think emphasizing Viscount Tardi (thanks for the reminder!) being non-sentient might have been so the Rebels don’t look bad sending a droid on essentially a suicide mission, which is kind of silly since regular rebel droids often are often in the line of fire. There was another issue where Artoo was badly damaged, and Luke lost his temper at a Rebel tech who suggested it was more trouble than it was worth to fix him when parts for other droids were already in short supply.

I may have missed something, but I don’t think Luke having to live with a mechanical hand was dealt with much in the post ESB storylines?