One of the things Rogue One did right was adding weight to Death Star, making it even scarier. When many creators fall into the trap of “even bigger explosions!”, R1 just holds the audience a bit longer in a scene which was so (too?) short in ANH.
That alone helps… but that’s not all.
They’ve successfully tapped into our hidden fears… watching R1 reminded me of certain documentary videos like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWyVd1iKa-I
…which I watch both hypnotized with amazement and paralyzed with fear.