It would mean losing the line from Palpatine about an entire legion (that's a thousand troops on top of the troops already there to guard the base) of his best troops (unless you are adding more in).

There aren't enough troops on the ground as it is and to cut the ones taken down by the Ewoks makes them look even less.

Having them all brought down by a really small band of Rebels (especially if Fay Tony is the tipping point) on their own turns them even more into the Imperial Keystone Cops than having them beaten up by little Ewoks with sticks.

This too creates a problem as the Emperor using this as means to fire up Luke's anger is a key point in the film.

Don't want rain on your parade but I'm not sure this is something that can be done in a satisfying way with editing alone.

The preview clips look good but as you know we can still hear the teddy bears in the background.