I actually appreciated the movie a lot more because of it. It made me feel like the narrative was actually really well put together, even if a few elements within it were a bit off. It made me spot a few things where there was good character work in commonly cut scenes, for example, and where cutting a lot of those scenes might have the compound effect of leaving the audience with little to connect to.

It also made me spot a few smaller things I hadn’t noticed before, like, when the group are travelling back to Naboo, they see the Trade Federation capital ship and Obi-Wan says “That’s a droid control ship”. Well, where was that observation when you literally boarded that ship at the start of the movie? Also why has the blockade gone from like ten ships down to just one?

Thinking of the movie less as a prequel and more in the context of “first chronologically” also helped. It made a few of the connections (C-3PO and R2-D2) and journeys (kid Anakin to Darth Vader) feel less jarring when this movie doesn’t follow the originals in watching order.