The Force balancing thing makes too much sense that I can't imagine George Lucas just passing it up. Technically Scotty, yu POV is valid, it just unfortunatly isn't gonna be right because the other one makes sense in a much more profound sense. The Jedi are full of themselves, they get all excited over The Chosen One because they think they'll finally have full peace everywhere, and then get screwed cuz they were too narrow-minded to see otherwise. It's way more dramatic and makes the story worth trying to tell. And seeing as how it's fiction......a space opera.....it works.
As for EU:
Timothy Zahn was just OK IMO. They were kinda dry at some points but overall were good reads.
I like most of KJA books because he writes very well IMO and is a little bit more action oriented. I'm not shallow just for wanting a bunch of action but c'mon....it's Star Wars.......battles are top-notch interesting.
Never read the others.