+1 from me too. I have TFP, Vader, and RG decently geared, and the 1-4th tier was relatively easy. Death trooper now at 5* as of today and need to finish a few more shards on Veers to get my last 5* for that tier (to unlock and probably just leave at 5*), but so far the dead weight has kind of been dead weight, and the over geared characters seem to lose a bit of oomph each level. I would imagine even if I had the stars I would need a bit more to complete the tier 7, and considering my lack of focus on empire characters other than for niche picks, that seems pretty adequate to me.
TLDR-Unlocking him takes a decently varied roster and a bit of commitment, and 7*ing him either requires a deep roster of decently geared chars or a couple of outstanding empire toons. Seems balanced to me.