system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Why were the Stormtroopers made so inferior compared to the Clone Troopers?

I was reading up on Stormtroopers and I read that their armor was not as protective compared to the Clone Trooper armor. I also read that their blasters weren't as good as previous blasters used by the Clones either. Why would the Empire give their troops inferior gear compared to their predecessors? Weren't the Stormtroopers supposed to be the ultimate evolution of the Clone Troopers? Wouldn't it make sense that the new replacements would receive new and superior gear?
gpt
Many of the Stormtroopers were human recruits, rather than the elite modified clones of Jango Fett. Additionally the philosophy under which they were trained was greatly different. The Clones all valued each other. They loved their brothers, and would never leave one of them behind if they could help it. Star Wars Rebels meanwhile shows that recruits were taught a kind of survival of the fittest mentality. If someone fell behind, they weren't worthy. The training process of Stormtroopers was less about training everyone to be the best and to work as a unit as it was about weeding out the weakest people and making the few survivors highly individualistic. They were still to work as a unit, as faceless drones, while simultaneously only valuing the strongest and shunning the weak. They had no unit cohesion. It's a fairly Sith philosophy in fact, favoring the most powerful instead of caring about others. And while it did wonders to keep the Sith alive and ensure that Palpatine could be around to destroy the Jedi, for his army it meant a considerably weaker force, who didn't have the same heart and will as the Clones. Stormtroopers, even the more dedicated, cared only about the Empire. Clones cared about the Republic as well as every brother next to him.

And with such a philosophy, it's easy to imagine one Stormtrooper who is a badass when he's alone, gunning countless Rebels. But in a unit, suddenly he's just thinking about overall mission and himself, and treating his squad mates like fodder. Reverse ninja principle.

And to address the inferior gear, because the Empire itself cared less about individual troop lives. That's what happens when you go from the Jedi who name their Clones and a Sith Lord pretending to care, to a Sith Lord who no longer cares.

There's also the fact that during the Clone Wars, the Republic was facing a force almost equal to itself. There were thousands of star systems aligned with the CIS, and battles were fought constantly and on a grand scale. The Galactic Civil War meanwhile was a powerful Empire against a band of rebels using guerilla tactics. For the longest time, the Stormtroopers were only equipped with enough gear and weaponry to act as an occupation force, rather than be full time war ready. The Rebels, however dangerous, were a far cry from the days of the Clone Wars and the uber powerful Separatists. And again, the Empire cared less about individual troop lives.