You may have misunderstood the thread, or the history of the pre-PT era? Someone who could play a compelling 20-40 year old across 3 films. Not someone who struggled in the role of a 20-23 year old, and did not convince many fans his character would grow into the Darth Vader we knew in the OT. (That is not all on Hayden: the PT scripts, green screens, and the direction also failed him and other actors, and Hayden’s done good work in other roles since.)
I understand what you are trying to say, but DarthStarkiller1234 didn’t say that we have to be bound to the speculations about the Prequel era that existed before the Prequels, he only asked us to choose an actor to play the role of Anakin.