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.
It would have been scarier if it weren’t even in the movie to begin with.
Considering the fact that I’ve never been properly scared of the Death Star until seeing Rogue One I’m going to have to disagree with you.