The baron was flying by himself, so in that universe they definitely had other ways to generate lift but trust-based propulsion.
In the books, the kernel of fictional science used for multiple effects, including suspensors which is what the Baron uses, is called the Holtzman Effect [1]. The movie doesn't mention it at all, but the depictions of suspensors with all the massive vehicles, as well as floating furniture, glow globes, etc, are all consistent with how the books describe them.
I've turned off the autocorrect, and now I get all kinds of stupid touch interface mistypes, and lose time over correcting them, but at least i'm not miscorrected all the time.