Ulrich said:
For a group of old samurai who tell themselves stories about how great and perfect they are, it makes sense. Put another way, I can see it making sense to the Jedi even if it doesn't make sense. This IS the order that collapsed through its own blind hubris.
No question Lucas was influenced by Kurosawa and the whole remnant Samurai thing. Specifically, "Hidden Fortress" is what all the cool kids point to.
And of course in Western European literary tradition, there was a great revival of interest in the supposed nobility and honor of knights who served "the realm" as standing armies with canons and guns arose.
Earlier, there were 11th and 12th century Papal bans on using bows/crossbows against (other) Christians, presumably because of their higher volume killing potential.
So, yeah, there have been different times and places where the older form of one-on-one combat was seen as more honorable or even moral. Still kind of harsh to cut a dude's arm off for talking **** in a bar, but the samurai were their own authority, like the Jedi who served 'the realm."