I agree about the power of characters.
If I couldn't connect with the prequel characters, gotten emotionally attatched to them, or sympathised with their plight, I wouldn't have enjoyed the prequels either.
I guess to me trying to recapture what made the classic trilogy great is a losing proposition. There is really no way to do that short of telling the same kind of story over again or as you suggested, by having the same "characters" that we fell in love with from the beginning.
To me the prequels are like a mirror image of the classic trilogy, like a yin is a mirror to the yang. They aren't the same, but they fill the other's void. To me this makes for a more well rounded story. You get to see many of the topics from several different, sometimes opposite points of view.
I mean we have a situation where each trilogy is about a force sensitve religion (that has been reduced to having only 2 members in hiding) trying to regain control of the galaxy. But they are polar opposites.
It's about a rebellion that ultimately changes the galaxy from democracy into a dictatorship and a rebellion that ultimately changes the dictatorship into a democracy.
I just think that in the long run, the extra detail will pay off better than trying to "recapture" the magic of the classic trilogy.