The more I think about it, the more interesting it would have been if they had brought back Palpatine in VII. I like the idea, which wasn’t really played with, that the ST sort of adds some narrative urgency to the existence of the prequels, and their placement after the OT in watch order. They played a little bit with the failure of the Jedi order angle, but imagine if you followed up the movie where Palpatine talks about cheating death (III) with a film where he comes back to life (VII)? When viewed in release order it would seem like the PT is a flashback where they’re setting up the next chapter, the ST.