Apparently the Suns had an economic revival during the Republic era akin to "the German Miracle" but the borders were fixed by the 3130 IS map that came out during the WK era. Of course, that economic muscle is barely touched upon after the timeskip.
So I am getting the impression that there is a lot of "Handwavium" being used to fit a particular storyline into the universe...
I'm going to put in the LDs let it happen clause here. No matter what you think of Michael Stackpole's writing, he took it before the LDs and they signed off on it. No matter what you think of Loren Coleman's writings, the LDs signed off on it. I do not think the writers have that much power. At most, they can color what they are asked to write about. An example would be the throne room scene between Victor and Grayson. Michael Stackpole colored it the way he wanted to, and William Keith colored it the way he wanted to.
Save the blame for the LDs that signed off on it.
I tend to agree. Having talked to writers in the past, including a couple who have written for the Star Trek Universe, they are given a set of guidelines to work within, and the LD's have input on the editing.
And I know that, as an example, if people wanted to start writing stories in my KNT universe, I would ask them to run them by me before posting them, because I want to make sure they aren't doing anything that's going to change my overall storyline arc in the universe. However, I'd also like to think that in my case if someone wrote a story that added a good plot twist, or changed something in a more interesting direction, I would adapt my overall storyline to fit it.
And to be honest, from my POV I'd be OK if they killed of a secondary tier character or two to advance the storyline, as long as a 3rd or 4th tier character stepped up. It seems there is a lot of characters being introduced that could take the universe in some interesting places, and they are just forgotten...
Oh well, back to the Brush Wars...
Davout