I can say the following:
Everyone's leaning on crutches and playing rock paper scissors
It is exactly the opposite. Before, a jedi vs gunner engagement was what you could call rock paper scissors, Jedi rush + swing could have 2 results: Jedi shot in the head and dies, or Jedi not shot in the head and gunner dies; OR, gunner dodges with a jump and gains the advantage. Of course there are force powers etc. on top, but talking strictly about the swinging vs shooting scenario, that was it. The only option for the gunner was to dodge or shoot in the head (OR get the jedi to low FP before he's up close, OR use other abilities, but these things haven't changed; the situation we are focusing on is the up-close swinging vs shooting).
Now ? Basically the up-close swinging vs shooting engagement has been prolonged and made less of an instant death scenario, for both sides. Which means there is more room for error and more room to apply your skill to consistently win the engagement. If you make 5 mistakes, and the other guy 3 mistakes, you'll lose. Compared to whoever makes the first mistake loses.
How this translates in terms of gameplay ? Up-close, the jedi will start swingblocking at the gunner, hoping for a kill, but isn't committing his own life in the process anymore. If he fails 1 or 2 swingblocks, due to low FP drains paired with good movement and dodging (so he doesn't get shot while running too much), he will still be able to retreat and try again later, and may want to add in a few deflects to scare the gunner at the cost of added risk (of losing more FP while not close to cover yet). However, if he commits too much, his FP will get low enough that he won't be able to retreat anymore under standard conditions (without teammates/a high ground spot easy to reach), and will probably lose the fight due to reaching 0 FP.
On the other hands on the gunner's side partially dodging (while remaining safe against force powers) is still extremely beneficial just because it's much easier to aim at the jedi if he isn't running or even walking around right in your face. When it comes to skilled players where flinch will basically never occur (because it's a plain mistake on the jedi's part to ever get flinched), the way for a gunner to win this up-close engagement, if no other abilities than swinging and shooting are considered, is still the same as before, that is to get the jedi to low FP. Of course this takes much longer than before, but at the same time you have much less risk of dying instantly if you didn't hit a headshot on a strafing target at point blank range. So it will basically be about tempting the jedi into committing too much so that he has too low FP to retreat when he decides to do so, or managing to hit him while he's running to get the massive FP drains (running FP drains weren't that high before, it was changed precisely to encourage these interactions and force the jedi to be more careful of his movement).
Of course, again on top of this you need to add all other abilities available in the game. And ambushing, caution etc. are still exactly the same as before. A gunner unaware of an ambush still has a major chance of dying; indeed he can now flinch a jedi who just rushes and swings in that case, with just a reflex, but in this particular scenario it's not like the jedi only has that option, he could use a force power, he could grab a wall to get the gunner from behind rather than from the side or front (if the gunner was walking/running past a door for example). Most of these interactions are completely unchanged.
Again in summary, what has changed is that the up-close swinging vs shooting battle has become a much more consistent test of skill on both parts, rather than having an instantaneous outcome based on the first mistake from either side (and that was heavily skewed in the jedi's favor since what the gunner needed to hit was a headshot and dodge, quite difficult things to do compared to strafing and swinging; of course blocking FP drains were higher, so even just getting up-close was more of a problem for the jedi and extremely risky against a good gunner unless you were ambushing). You see, it's all about making jedi class harder to play, because it is definitely much more forgiving and requires less mechanical skill (aim) compared to gunner classes, while at the same time giving it less high-risk situations thanks to swingblocking and low blocking FP drains, so that there is more room and time to even apply skill (and for the gunner too).
What is flinch in all this ? Again, just a forward + swing instakill/huge dmg deterrent. It really has little place in an engagement between players who have adapted to these mechanics and don't make big mistakes. But it is still necessary for it to be there, otherwise all of these new gameplay interactions would not even exist, just like before. And for new players it is an obstacle to overcome via using swingblock, something they need to revolve around which is extremely beneficial for making them think about their play and improve, compared to before where they'd often get kills just with forward + swing, and they'd thus remain at that level without being compelled to think much unless they really tried, due to getting decent results with little effort. The only thing lacking is clear documentation on what swingblock/etc. is, so that these things would be easier to pick up (though i believe such things are still at least in the in-game library if you look at the saber vs gun part).
So to answer this:
Everyone's leaning on crutches and playing rock paper scissors with them because things like avoidance, aiming, even damn map awareness and caution are too much effort.
It's not fun. Sorry.
Things like avoidance, aiming, map awareness and caution are still required as much as before without any doubt. On the contrary, jedi vs gun engagements now require more effort since they are longer and more testing, with less instadeath risks. So these "crutches", aka new mechanics precisely allow less rock paper scissors play. Instead of "not shot in the head, instawin" and "shot in the head (or had low HP), instalose", it's "got swingblock interrupted once, twice, third time is a hit" and "got swingblock interrupted thrice, need to retreat, it's up to the gunner to finish me in my retreat by shooting me while i'm running, and up to me to save myself with good movement by getting shot only while blocking and possibly getting some deflects in to scare the gunner". Dodging etc. are things you would do before too, but the point is that now you have many more opportunities to do it because you're alive longer; it's much more testing, thanks to the mechanics and low FP drains making the engagements less highly risky.
It's not fun ? Of course, it won't be fun for anyone trying to play the old way, because that won't work well and all the mechanics will feel out of place since they aren't what you'd expect to happen. If you're looking for effort, i'm pretty sure trying to play the new way has alot of potential to be fun for you. It has definitely made these engagements more skill-based and consistent, and made jedi class harder to play overall (it's still powerful... but harder to play).
