choice. altho in return of the jedi, darth vader absolutely does yeet a lightsaber luke. and some of the animated stuff and video games make regular use of the boomerang throw, for visual references. basically the movies are the exception for a very valid lifestyle.

I just remembered that in Ep 3, when Yoda and Obi-wan are trying to get into the Jedi Temple, Yoda just chucks his lightsaber's into a clone's chest, before jumping onto the still standing body, to pull it back out.