Part of Luke’s guilt over Owen and Beru was a nagging regret that he and his uncle had never really understood each other. He’d been so frustrated that Owen didn’t get why it wouldn’t be enough for Luke to find a nice local girl, settle down, and become a moisture farmer for the rest of his life.
Years later, after the confrontations with Vader, after seeing how close he got to the Dark Side, Luke understands. If he’d gone to the Academy with his friends, when he’d wanted to go, he would have been identified. If he hadn’t been killed, he would have been singled out, groomed to serve the Empire, to become the successor to his father. And his boyish yearning for adventure was such that he might have actually gone along with it, especially if his father had been involved.
Owen might not have known all those implications, but he knew that parading the secret son of Anakin Skywalker in front of the Imperial Navy was a seriously bad idea. And in his experience, bad things seemed to follow when the Jedi came to town, so the less Luke had to do with that too, the better.
Owen might not have kept Luke from his destiny. But he’d protected him until he was ready to fulfill it.
This is really something that I think would have occurred to Luke late, as he’d need to work through his own trauma about Anakin being Vader first, and all this happens several years after Owen and Beru died. But once he does think of it, yes, I think there would be guilt about that.
I also think there’d be more to it than Luke could know. Even without Anakin’s fall, without Vader, there’s the one time that Owen met Anakin. It wasn’t under the best circumstances, and I doubt it left Owen comfortable with the idea of Jedi and their abilities.
I don’t like to judge Owen too harshly for his determination not to let Luke become too much like Anakin. Let’s face it. He has reason.
Owen is very grounded. He’s a Tatooine moisture farmer, very focused on what’s necessary for that. Then here comes Anakin, who couldn’t logically know about what happened to Shmi but is also coming late. If he did know somehow, why didn’t he come sooner? As well, Anakin walked away and left Shmi in slavery and never contacted her again. For Owen, an outsider to Jedi ways, I doubt that sits well with him.
As well, I’ve always really liked the idea that Owen knows a fair amount of what happened when Anakin went out into the desert to find Shmi. Even if he doesn’t, one nineteen year old boy went alone, found her in a single night, and brought her home when Owen and his father failed. That’s already something beyond Owen’s experiences. Add to that the truth of what happened? Anakin slaughtered the Sand People. Forgetting the moral implications, just the fact that he was able to, on his own, is scary. Then add the moral implications in. Anakin doesn’t seem to regret what he did.
All of this? It’s what forms Owen’s impression of both Anakin and the Jedi before Obi-Wan brings Luke to him. Now, here’s his nephew, whom he knows he has to protect from the Empire. But Luke’s also a dreamer, an idealist. A good boy, for all that his head is in the stars.
Do you really think Owen and Beru would want this child they’ve raised and loved to become what his father was?