At the end of the day, I think what’s most notable about TPM is that it is the only Star Wars film ever that is just pure, unfiltered George Lucas. With the OT there were a lot of factors that pushed the films away from the vision in his head and a lot of people refining what he wrote. With AOTC he was responding a bit to the criticism of TPM and also coming up with a lot of stuff on the fly and in post. And with ROTS he was playing catch up and providing some fan service. But TPM is really the only one where he had a lot of time to write all by himself (and a lot of freedom in the story due to its setting in the timeline), and then when it came to production there was basically nothing stopping him (technology or budget-wise) from getting exactly what he wanted. It’s definitely an interesting film to look at in that regard, but ultimately I think it’s clear to see the problems with that as well.
I never thought of it that way, but you’re completely right. Have you read “The Star Wars”, the comic adaptation of Lucas’ first draft of the original film? It’s very TPM-like in many ways. It has complicated galactic politics, a Wookiee equivalent of the Ewok/Gungan battle at the end, very stiff and formal Jedi Knights, etc. Its’ interesting to think of what SW would have been if the first film, in the literal sense, would have been more like TPM.