Well, I disagree with you on one point. I think having young Anakin was crucial. But I don’t think the story had enough in it. I think AOTC is the weakest point. I think that film should be totally reworked into something that shows that a key point to his turn was the many years of mentoring by Palpatine. And more needed to be done with the lines Kenobi first uttered in A New Hope. AOTC should be them coming back and this mission delays Anakin’s trials to be a Jedi Knight. So he is ready and needs no more teaching. We should see the friendship and camaraderie between Anakin and Kenobi. I would weave more about Darth Sideous manipulating the events the pull him to the dark side. So I think TPM could stand as is, AOTC needs a total rework, and ROTS a partial rework. We should know Darth Sideous is behind these things all along. Hide the reveal (not such a reveal to us longtime fans) but in such a way that when Palpatine reveals the truth, Anakin already knows. I’d have Mace arrive and have a huge battle between the Jedi Masters trying to arrest him and Palpatine with Anakin fighting by his side, horrified that they are trying to illegally seize power.

One of the biggest issues is that Anakin is still the whiny kid in AOTC, and he should be more solid and on the verge of his knighthood. It should be events that Sideous is orchestrating that pull him to the dark side. 13 years of mentoring, a feeling in Anakin that the Jedi don’t serve the Republic, make it more an outcome of his core beliefs. We only get a tiny hint of that when Anakin and Padme talk in the meadow in AOTC.

Lucas was too subtle and it hurt the trilogy.