I’m young enough to have grown up on the prequels. I loved them as a kid more than the originals. Now, looking back, I can see a lot of their flaws, but the thing that always stood out to me was the very thing you mentioned @Anchorhead - the underlying story. The in-world political story of someone who manipulates a government and its people to gain power, manufactures a war, turns one of the Jedi to infiltrate and use him for his own purposes, and the failures of the Republic (and its people) in both combatting and failing to see all of this, putting trust in people that are untrustworthy, all leading to a Republic that turns into a Empire, and for some of the new shows, how that then impacts the people themselves.

It’s literally brilliant! It has a strong message, and the message for me was always very impactful. But then again, I’ve always loved stories about governmental power struggles, how authoritarian regimes rise, dystopian and utopians. But I love that Star Wars combines this very Sci-fi topic with Fantasy and the Jedi. The prequels do a great job of giving a larger history to the universe as a whole, expanding it outward.

That’s why I like some of these fan edits of the prequels - they take this great underlying story and match the execution to that great story, by cutting all the cringy moments. As for the CGI, I still think it holds up, but I also like the updated CGI, and will continue to like new updates if done right. The cool thing about CGI is you can always improve them, which is the very reason I love CGI stuff (when done well).

This led me to realizing something about George Lucas - he might be not so great at the detailed execution of certain things (too many jokes, etc.), but he is excellent at world-building and overall story. I watched THX 1138 recently, and loved that movie for the very same reasons.