If darth vader had never used any of the death stars, the quadrillions of average joes living in his empire would live totally happy and totally unaffected by his rule. the only reason that the empire was so "evil" was because they dissolved the senate and democracy and their/the leader had absolute power, which is not evil in and of itself......

The quadrillions of imperial citizens lived happy lives, only a few billion or so were affected by it, a very tiny and a small percentage of them.......