Speaking of those '95 interviews, doesn't Lucas say that he's getting other people to direct the prequels? That's probably the biggest thing that's bothered me recently about this whole deal, what happenned during the next two years to make him change his mind. More and more I'm thinking it was the SE that caused it all. I'm thinking it must've convinced any potential director that he or she was better off working on something else besides "the star wars prequels."
And yea, it's hard to disagree with the "it was all about the money" assessment. Lucas had done nothing but produce for 22 years and then decided to sit right back down in the director's chair as if no time had passed and Star Wars was still freshly struck gold. The SE and the PT feel in many ways like mere homages to the actual OOT.
CO, in regards to the replay value of the OT, in many ways it has to do with how unique each individual movie is, how Star Wars is so different from Empire. In the 60 minutes interview from shortly before ROTS's release, Lucas's words were "I'm not scared at all (about the critics). They haven't liked any of them really." Oh, is that the truth? Although I will admit it's hard to compare the trilogies objectively.