IMO, the entire cast of creatures and droids created for the prequels were completely forgetable. The battle droids were a complete and utter joke. They looked like crap. They honestly looked like mechanical stick figures. And the creatures? Nute Gunray, Watto and Jar Jar all looked like crap. Even General Grievous was not that impressive. When you compare this stuff to R2D2, C3PO, OT Yoda, Chewie, the Tauntauns, Tuskin Raiders, Jawas, all the funky creatures at the cantina, the Wampa, the bounty hunters, Jabba the Puppet, the Gamorian guards, heck even that silly creature in the garbage chute, the prequel stuff just looks inferior.
On top of that, is the cgi podrace any more impressive than the Battle of Hoth, asteroid field and speeder bike chace sequence. Would the AT-AT's have been better as cgi creations? No way! The only real limits George had in the OT was the small budget for the first film, but after that he had a ton of money and almost no limitations for the other films.
I think one of the reasons people bought into Star Wars was that everything had a lived in, grimey, dirty look. Tatooine, Hoth, Daghobah, etc were simple, yet much more effective than the overblown Coruscant and Naboo. To this day, none of the CGI can top the imagination of the Carbon Freezing Chamber and all the other Cloud City sets. How cool was that place?!!!