Evidently most of the fandom needs to have it beaten over their heads a bit more blatantly than that.

Another thing that would have been helpful is if it was made clearer just how monstrous the Ewoks actually are. There wouldn't be as much shame to the Imperials for losing against them if people had only internalized a bit better that:

• Ewoks are strong enough that they can haul Redwood-sized logs up into the canopy to build deadfalls, using only crude vine ropes and muscles, and do it quietly enough that the nearby Imperial garrison didn't notice.
• They are stealthy enough that an ordinary hunting party can sneak up on an elite Rebel strike force (including a Jedi).
• That hunting party was hunting a 3-meter-tall boar-wolf, by the way. Ewoks hunt these routinely.
• Endor is full of predators like that, and despite that the Ewoks let their children wander the forest on their own. Upon being confronted with an armor-clad alien wielding a blaster weapon and riding a flying machine, one of those lone children thought to himself: "guess I'd better kill him." Leia helped, of course, but the Ewok couldn't have known she would.
• One of their literal gods, personified in the form of a physical avatar before them, ordered the Ewoks not to burn some people alive and devour their flesh. The Ewoks hesitated for half a second and then resumed piling the firewood with a jaunty song. Gods are spiffy and all, but don't get in between Ewoks and their cannibalism.

"Not to mention how many troopers we lost under orders to not shoot to hit."

Actually that raises another point. It is really unclear in the first film what exactly Vader's position of authority is. Because he seems kind of subordinate to Tarkin at points. He even tells Vader to leave that officer alone when he's strangling him, and he obeys the order.