Look at it this way.
There were numerous episodes of the radio series, issues of the early Marvel comics etc where not a single Force user appeared.
They still felt like Star Wars though.
In many ways the Jedi are more conspicuous by their absence and true to their initial description by Ben, in the premise of this film, than they actually were in person during the whole of the PT.
The lack of Jedi is the reason why the Rebels need to try fight even harder against the seemingly undefeatable Empire.