Agreed.
A novelisation of either KOTOR would disappoint many people. You can't write about a character that people have created themselves.
Set in the general era is fine, even if there are some small cameos from game characters, events which take place alongside game events but have no effect on them (eg maybe being involved somewhere in Onderon's civil war) or just simply visiting planets and places where Revan/Exile have been, or are going to be.
As for other books. I quite enjoyed the Heir series simply because I loved the character of Thrawn but I have really just stuck to the X-Wing series, hence my female Exile's name being Carrie Horn.