I don’t personally think changing superficial designs hurts the story. It shows evolution and growth from film to film. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme are all relatively young, at least to a point they’re not too old of age where they’re stubbornly set in their ways. Therefore seeing hairstyle/clothing/ships changing from movie to movie doesn’t seem so off. Maybe, for instance, Padme is likes that new ship smell and buys the newest ship of that year.
(actually while typing this, I see Duracell basically made this same observation).

Prequels has many issues, but the designs themselves or the gradual evolution of the militaries I think was done reasonably well. Although, it is always jarring to believe that the flashy nature of the technology went backwards. I understand sticking with an easy and non-changing aesthetic for the Empire, but using rudimentary interfaces sounds unlikely and the contrast definitely sticks out in the worst possible way.