It also helps that there was at least a rough plan for the prequels, regardless of their eventual execution. Anakin’s fraught relationship with Obi-wan, the loss of his mother, the forbidden love…these storytelling decisions are in service to his character and in the hands of a better director they could have been realized brilliantly. On the other hand, the storytelling decisions of TROS act in opposition to Rey’s character and actively undermine it.
That is true. Whether you like Anakin’s portrayal in the prequels or not, you can’t deny he had a consistent character arc across the trilogy. Rey, on the other hand, is basically a completely different character every movie. In TFA she’s a streetsmart scavenger with a heart of gold and a mysterious past, in TLJ she’s a clueless novice whose parents were random losers, and in TROS she’s a Sith princess who spends most of the movie staring introspectively into the middle distance. I really wish there was only one writer-director for this trilogy, because everyone’s character arcs would have been a lot better.