I think you'd do well to watch this video, it put the Death Star scene into a context I'd missed myself and I spent my childhood reading basically every bit of the EU:
Tl;Dr not only is the Death Star flawed, so are the fighters. Luke could not have made the shot without the Force because the targeting computer was wrong/jammed/not good enough. The point being that you can't put all your faith in technology.
Of course, on the other hand the Force didn't make the proton torpedoes either so I think the real point is Jedi should use more blasters.