I didn’t give the prequels a pass. I just said they are slightly less soulless.
I’m not sure though how working for Disney automatically leads JJ Abrams, Gareth Edwards, Rian Johnson, or Ron Howard (among the many others involved) to create soulless works. People like a movie or they don’t.
JEDIT: And sure, I can think of two movies right now for which I loved the Director’s Cut but find the theatrical cut to be comparatively “meh.” So yes, producers do meddle and often not for the better. But the company a producer works for is not automatically a source of evil in filmmaking.