Yeah I don’t know if Knoll would be good or bad. I mean, the original film (and a chance encounter that led to him hanging out with the ILMers in '78 or '79 at their model shop as a wide-eyed teenager) is what led him down his career path to begin with.
And while his cgi hobby may have led to the SE’s, he’s also the guy who PAINSTAKINGLY recreated the original cg Death Star plans on his own time (which ended up in R1). And he also came up with the idea for Rogue One.