I don’t think I would call TPM well crafted. There’s very little story in it. No identifiable protagonist.
Qui-Gon, maybe?
Nothing means anything.
Yep. Because nothing in Ep1 happens that is important to the stories of Eps2-3, that isn’t also explained in Ep2.
AOTC and ROTS are trash but they have actual protagonists who make decisions that affect the outcome of the film. Both these films explore themes and ideas and have a central conflict that is present from begining to end.
The big Gungan v. Droid battle is pointless outside of being a diversion—we have no stake in whether they live or die in the battle because it doesn’t matter to Naboo defeating the Trade Federation. The Naboo pilots are stupid because they could fly right through the hangar and blow up the reactor but they don’t—Anakin does it on accident, to their confusion. The battle against Maul has glaring problems, like why there needs to be multiple force fields or why Obi-Wan doesn’t use Force Speed like he did earlier. Creepy Puppet Yoda’s appearance was a problem with the theatrical release; Jar Jar’s character was overtly racist, extremely annoying, and had no bearing on the plot of TPM; and Ric Olie, aka Captain Obvious, is obvious. And there’s a throwaway scene where they ruin the mysticism of the Force by attributing Force-sensitivity to mitochondria.
Basically, the gungan battle against the droids is mostly filler; the podrace is mostly filler; (at least) one of the characters is annoying and only funny on an immature level; the mysticism and wonder of the Force is undermined; and the story doesn’t matter to the trilogy nor the saga. So no, I wouldn’t call that “well crafted.”