Saga Imperial strength/size...how much is too much?

So, I've been accumulating reference information for a piece of fan fiction I hope to finish in this lifetime. Much of it isn't necessarily pertinent to the story; just to get a "feel" for the scope of things.

So you run across things like "25,000 Imperial Class Star Destroyers at the height of the Empire's power..." (Along with the requisite personnel)...and vehicles like the Galaxy Gun (just as an example I happened to see posted on the board the other day), which dwarfs an ISD in its own right.

I suppose maybe it depends which movie(s) you saw first, and thus how you set your own personal bar in terms of size and scope; but consider ANH...where the opening minutes of the movie leaves you in awe of the size of a single ISD; leaving you with the impression that, hell, this one craft might be the ultimate power in the universe! But then by the time we get a real sense of scale with the Death Star in terms of power and size, you've established your baseline in terms of both awesomeness AND your own scope of reality that would see about their construction/implementation.

I'll be honest; as awesome as the Executor was, it had a bit of eyeroll quality to it; as absurd as a regular ISD's size was, it was, after all, a floating city; it's going to be big. But then you see the Executor and start running through the logistics of "why?", and it can serve to cheapen a moment when you see it as being done for an arbitrary "bigger/better" effect.

I realize the SW galaxy is huge; but even looking at all of the individual planets and systems, is it "25,000 Star Destroyers to maintain the 'peace'" huge? And even if it was; oh, the resources required! Not to mention other support craft, ground assault vehicles, TIEs, etc. Plus the fact that some systems/planets perhaps aren't inhabited, and require a limited military presence. Mind you, I see numbers all over the place in regards to how many planets/systems there actually are; variation differing by a factor of 100.

My first issue with this (on a somewhat different level) was when I found out how many TIE variants there were; now, I do love the efficient notion of the TIE as a modular platform - the TIE Bomber is a logical extension and the TIE Crawler is wonderfully imaginative - but there are like 30 variations, most of which are lazy and a result of "just add/subtract another one of these pieces". But I digress...

Personally, it seems numbers can dilute the notion of power as readily as it can enhance it. There's a point where, as plausible as something may very well be, it becomes too hard to wrap your head around, and appears to you as a story contrivance.

Yeah, I get it. It's Star Wars. Plausibility, you say??? Still...this is something that I would have to skew a bit in terms of headcanon. Can anyone else relate?

 

That's just another great example why a lot of stuff from the EU should be taken with a lot of salt, IMHO.

HAN The entire starfleet couldn't destroy
the whole planet. It'd take a thousand
ships with more fire power than
I've...

This statement from ANH appears to set an upper limit for the Imperial Starfleet and that works just fine for me. I always envisioned the Imperial Starfleet to be essentially some kind of national guard or police force that mostly deals with incidents inside the Empire, e.g. smugglers, pirates, rebels etc.

Han also referred to "local bulk cruisers", probably every planet / member of the Empire has a fleet of its own and I can only imagine an alien invasion or the like to become a situation where all these members bring their fleets to the table under the command of the Imperial Starfleet.