See, what made the OT such a success that it'll probably still be talked about in another 30 years is that it had layers, pretty much like Kutz says in the quotes above.
On the surface it's an action-packed adventure movie for kids. Loads of popcorn-munching fun. But underneath that, there the character drama, morality message stuff. Here's the thing, you could have just one or the other of these things. Sometimes that can be good, but often it's not so good. All action is shallow like one of those inflatable kiddie pools. Like a roller coaster, it can be fun the first couple times, but before to long it becomes "been there, done that." The deep stuff can be just pretentious or diadactic and other long words we don't use in Health class. Basically it becomes just... boring.
Star Wars took these two elements and put them together. The results was greater than the sum of its parts. It gave the shallow action more depth and nuance and kept the deep philisophical wankery exciting. As a result, it was one of those stories that appeals to all ages.
How's that?