But the I hate sand line is important. It’s not about sand itself, it’s about him hating Tatooine, hating that he was a slave, that his mother–as far as he knows, is still a slave. The line has such a deeper meaning.
I hear ya, and I think that was George’s original intention for the scene. However, from an editing standpoint, I think Episode II really benefits from “scene-focus-streamlining”, and that means reworking the “Sand Scene” to only focus on Anakin and Padme’s romance.
Anakin’s hatred of Tatooine, slavery, and his mother’s predicament, are handled better in other sequences, like Anakin’s conversation with Watto, and the scenes at the Lars Homestead. Basically, I completely agree with you in principle. I would just execute the edit differently to achieve the same goal. 😉