They won't reach high marksdwarf level due to the fact that they will be slaughtered cause of bad armor.
Have you ever seen a stormtrooper not go down immediately when hit by a blaster? I don't know why they even bother wearing armor, unless someone is using a Jedi crotch kick it seems pretty worthless.
Possibly the armor is to protect them from the sprays of metal vaporizing off the walls from missed shots, rather than direct hits?
The point of the armor is grazing shots. The point is that if you get hit in the arm, instead of taking your arm off and frying you, you will survive after spending the next three months in bacta therapy...
No, actually, the books (yeah, I read them) say that the armor is useless against direct hits, but not grazing shots or ricochets. In the books, the people get shot, and after they have bacta applied and some time to recover, they survive. The armor is to keep you from being completely taken apart when they nail you with a good blaster shot.
HOWEVER! When they drop a proton torp' on the base... ...
The rebel and storm trooper armor is the equivilent of paper bags. I'm guessing that all the good armor goes to making those spiffy bright-red badges put directly on the most visible shoulder of the commander, making him a nice, big target.
"Hmm, shoot this guy, or the guy commanding that guy..."
*Bang!*
"OH GOD! WHAT DO I DO NOW?!"
Exactly!