The impression I had was the training from the early age was just to ensure that all fear, attachments and insecurities that may lead to the dark side was eliminated/controlled from a young age. I dnt remember them referring to any specific advantages of training more quickly if starting at a young age.
As for the "son of the chosen one thing" yes that must have played a huge part in his fast jedi training, but it only goes so far when we know the "chosen one" himself still took 10-11 years to complete his Jedi training.
So I do think starting to train as an adult (and probably taking his training a lot more seriously than whiny daddy) had a lot to do with his crash course to Jedi Knighthood.
After all who'se going to learn to drive faster: a 10 year old or a 20 year old??
Btw good points about Yoda and Palpatine both seeing the Light and Dark as Black & White, one or the other, with no in between.
Although that may be true for most Jedi/Sith. It might only be something the chosen one could break.
When did they kill a bunch of the teddy bears? I don't remember it in the movie. I just remember the Stormtroopers going down like flies. And yet these were the 'best of the best'. What a joke.
No matter how many Midis Luke had he couldn't have had more than his father who was the chosen one. Anakin didn't even progress that fast under formal Jedi training after 10 years and Luke now after 3 and a half is so powerful - doesn't make sense. And yes I could understand Luke being trained by Yoda and taking his training more seriously but if you notice in ESB he fails pretty much every test Yoda puts in front of him, its not like he was blowing past all boundaries, he was very limited by his mind and his lack of training.
P.S. I actually started a thread in the OT sections about this very thing if you guys want to check it out.