Sure I will grant you opening week, even opening month those people went to see TPM on the merit of the classic trilogy.
But when it's still in dollar theaters when they re-release it for the Christmas holiday, you have to start to suspect that people were going back again and again because they actually liked -that- movie too.
It is patently ridiculous to state that Lucas did not have a crew of people working with him on the prequels. I don't even understand how you could say it. Sure it's not the same crew he had since the beginning, but there -was- a crew. It wasn't just "Lucas, some blue screens, crappy actors and some computers."
People -DID- get their point across to Lucas that they didn't like the way Jar-Jar was being done. Lucas simply didn't agree with them. Just as he didn't agree with Kurtz when he thought they shouldn't make Vader Luke's father.