Didn't say there wasn't character development; of course there was. Only disputing your argument that they lost.
Well, I suppose physical humiliation is bad, but hardly a big deal in the lose column. The mutilation is immediately undone, making it less of a problem than the Thanos snap.Discovering and destroying their base on Hoth. Plus capturing Solo and humiliating and physically mutilating Luke - the two guys responsible for the destruction of the Death Star.
I mean, maybe, but we're not really shown much of that. They lose a battle, and we can imagine the loses, but it seems like they're fully capable of fighting in the next movie, so they couldn't have been that bad.Yeah sans the ones that got killed when the Hoth base was discovered.
Maybe, but I don't know. A main villain was killed in New Hope, something that didn't happen to the rebels in Empire. Plus they achieved their goal in the movie, destroy the Death Star. The empire's goals in Empire were 1) wipe out the rebellion 2) capture Skywalker. They accomplished neither.