Honestly, it makes little difference. Star Wars in the prequel era was just as bad or good as it is now. Lucas destroyed his own creation long before Disney came along with the suppression of the theatrical cuts and retconning the story with the prequels and with Jar Jar’s ridiculous existence and Lucas’ haphazard film making.
Fair. Nobody who saw Red Tails and Strange Magic was calling him a visionary. It’s just that people love to think about how great things that they don’t have could have been.
Honestly, those weren’t bad films. They were competent movies. Lucas is talented. I have more respect for Red Tails and Strange Magic than the prequels. at least 1 and 2. I feel his priorities changed significantly in the prequel era; he cared more about just “telling the story” and getting it done expediently and playing with digital technology, rather than trying to make “good cinema.” I honestly feel like he could care less about being a good film maker, and just wants to be a creator in general.
I think some people who wish Lucas was back feel this way because in the prequel era there was no social media. A lot of the antagonistic feelings from the fans can be attributed to this “interaction” between the fans and Lucasfilm employees on social media. Back in the prequel era if something sucked, you just said it sucked and the film maker (Lucas) just moved on. I really miss that believe it or not. And Not just with Star Wars but the industry as a whole. Now Lucasfilm employees can actually respond to the fans and when they do, all I see is all the $$$$$ Disney is losing because of this necessity to “fight back against the haters.” Very bad business model. I’ll never understand that. Disney should just shut up and either stay the course or implement corrective action. Don’t communicate with the fans about there negative feedback. No good will come out of it. Because if you say, “we’re sorry and we’ll change”, you’ll lose the people that liked the initial product, and if you say we won’t change, you just lose those customers because you are not adhering to their criticism’s. I produce products myself and when I get hated on I simply say “Thanks for your feedback”, even when I believe 1000% in my product and disagree with the hater. You know why? Because all I think about is this guy’s $$$$ and how I want him to give me another chance at his $$$ even if I believe in my product and I am not changing anything.
But again, every time I watch Andor or Rogue One or Mandalorian 1 and 2, I’m happy Lucas sold it