I know most of my posts have been in regard to GW becoming fun and challenging to being a chore and near impossible. There is a simple fix, that can maintain the protection yet allow fairness in conflicts in GW, that is allow benched heroes to regain 1/3 of their protection per fight benched. It won't make it too easy, it adds a level of strategy (a bit like tyre choice in F1) and will allow you to face some of the later fights with protection.
However reading the above comment what struck me was the lack of a story mode. I know that being a licensed product in a Star Wars Universe that has regained control of the canon makes it difficult, but there must be areas that could be created. Maybe classic stories/missions that are agreed canon could exist. A "new hope" table which you could complete either as light side or dark. With a limited character choice like teh omega tables. But the lack of story mode is a shame. Similarly other "character collection" games usually include information about characters, so people new to the Extended Star Wars universe don't wonder why everyone thinks Plo Koon is hard done by, or ask "Why does Asokha have Nightsister synergy?"
There you go, a bit of extra feed back to go with - make GW fun and not a time sink.
Turkano