Some of the shots, like the original version of the falcon taking off from mos eisley, or the rebels taking off from the battle of Yavin are not fantastic.
Furthermore, even with the advent of CG, Lucas has continually employed more modelwork in each one of the prequels than the entire classic trilogy combined.
I think a lot of you see this as a CG vs Models battle, when really they use both techniques extensively, and one doesn't replace the other.
I just don't get it. Plenty of things that artists came up with for SW was abandoned entirely before the final cut, yet just because you happened to see this stuff released originally, suddenly it's a huge insult to the artist for the director to make artistic decisions?