I love how so many of you who claim to be for acceptance are simply saying that there's no validity to my argument if I disagree with you and I should just get over it.
If it was simply to have a character with physical disability, why not make him do something he'd physically be capable of doing? Like being an intelligence officer? The man would literally be perfect for that. Tactical genius, physically unassuming. There are plenty of real world examples of people that describes who ran highly successful espionage operations. Multiple pilots in star Wars have had specific adaptations for them, another good choice. Thrawn is a tactician; Thrawn is not an imperial trooper nor is he a combattant.
But no, let's make him a combattant who can't operate long arms, heavy weapons, most non modified vehicles, can't efficiently reload weapons, has a deficiency at hand to hand combat, and can't carry you to safety if you go down... you know, all of the things you do in a combat job.
This wouldn't even be a discussion if there was lore that went with him, but there isn't. Calling him a fan fiction character was pretty spot on.