I don't find Cade's performance against Krayt in either instances to be as impressive as Luke's against Vader's. I believe DT is highly overrated as an ability. Any Force user who isn't outclassed by their opponent ( as Cade was with Krayt ) should be able to react to an attempt to use this ability on them and deal with it accordingly.
People always say how hard it would be to land a palm on someone mid fight, and I guess different authors/eras have different interpretations of lightsaber combat. In the PT, you don't see it as much, but in the NJO, they are constantly throwing elbows/palm strikes/kicks. They incorporate a lot of strikes that isn't only their lightsaber.
Cade does this a lot and for someone like ROTJ Luke, who has never faced a fighter like Cade, this could be a problem for him.
True, they do throw a fair amount of kicks. I'm kind of blanking on anything else overly physical though, barring a fighter like Maul. It's typically lightsabers clashing, and then a kick when there's an opening. I feel like palm strikes to the jaw and elbows and punches and what have you are more prominent in the NJO.