Considering the names of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, it would seem strange to think of these games without Jedi in them. But, according to The Guardian and Respawn's Stig Asmussen, Lucasfilm was hesitant to see a Jedi-centric game.
"At that point, to Lucasfilm, the Jedi are like the holy grail. I mean, it's something that they're probably the most protective of, except for maybe Baby Yoda. So we had to kind of earn that," Asmussen said. "[Lucasfilm] were really uncomfortable with Jedi, and they said, 'Let's reset this. Let's call this character a force user.'"
This is probably why we see Cal on his journey in the first game of learning to become a Jedi once more, rather than just have him established as one right off the bat. Still, it's interesting to think about what the game may have looked like with Cal even more distanced from the Jedi Order.