I can definitely see how people would think of Dash as a Han Solo ripoff. In fact, it's possible that's what they were going for. Although, since Lando was already a Han substitute, it seems strange why they had to add another one. I think it was mostly to give a new character to play as in the video game. Remember that Shadows was more than the novel. To George it was, "A new Star Wars movie with everything but the movie." Luke and co. were the focus of the novel, Dash was the focus of the game, and Boba Fett was the focus of the comics. And since it was the same overall story, those paths would occasionally collide. It seems logical that Dash flying at Hoth was just fan service, so you could play at Hoth on your N64. And it had good ramifications: that first level of SotE was the inspiration for the Rogue Squadron series that I love so much.