I thought it was quite obvious in the PT, if not quite beating us over the head (which usually isn’t good in a movie anyway).
There’s a difference between hitting you over the head and actually putting in the leg work to make choices like this clear. Subtle subtext is cute, but when it’s something that’s actually important to the story and characters, you can’t just leave it up in the air where it is easily ignored. What you say is “obvious” is only such if you look at the big picture and assume the best of Lucas’s intentions. But the truth is that this subplot is basically, in dramatic terms, nowhere to be found.