Yes, the whole cloning thing is extremely lame. However, I have always liked the idea of the Imperial Remnant. With how powerful the Empire was it would stand to reason that its forces reaching across the galaxy wouldn't just say, What? Palps kicked the bucket? Alright, I guess thats the end of it. It would be very unreasonable for the Rebels to march into the capitol and reclaim it the very day after the defeat of the Emporer. It makes sense that people like Thrawn would take on larger roles when they suddenly discovered they were in command of a huge armada and had nobody to answer to. Whether out of patriotism to the Galactic Empire or out of selfish gain. But Emporer clones, that is too Star Trek quality.