The thing with the Jedi class is the name, as most jedi will take levels in the class but not everyone taking those levels will be a jedi. This is the basic class for force users, so Force Sensitivity should be part of the class. If you want to play a character with some jedi training that is not force sensitive, you obviously start in another class and multi-class in to jedi later if you need to. Not every forceuser use a lightsaber, so this class may not be the best to start in unless you are playing such a concept.
The Jedi (or general force user class) is important as a repository for lots of force related talents. Many of those talents are not only useful for jedi, but other forceusers and even caharcters not using the force should have access. So to put them all in one tradition would not be faire to the other traditions that have about 5 talents or so.
The Jedi Knight PrC is actually a bigger problem, as many talents should work well for non-jedi. But as only members of the jedi tradition can get in, others are excluded from having access to (most of) those talents. Membership to an organisation is a requirement that some (many?) GM would ignore if the see it as reasonable.
There are many things that they could have done better when making this game, but when you play you only change smal things to make it run smoothly. When you make big changes things easily start to fall apart, and you may have to change mor things on the fly for the game to work properly.