imperialscum said:
Well I guess some random insignificant EU author first draw it like that. The sad part is that instead of just discarding his/her stupid design, subsequent authors adopted it and tried to come up with all sorts of stupid explanation for it. Now in the end, it seems it even made its way to new official canon.

Honestly, I derive enough pleasure from the mental gymnastics required to make this stuff work to not be too bummed out about it. EU dumbness (in its proper amount) is part of the fun as long as it doesn’t impinge too much on the films.