The reason why so many look fondly back at SW in the 90's is essentially you had one group of SW fans: SW fans! Sure we all realized later on that ROTJ was the weak link of the saga, but it was still the best trilogy of any movie series.

Now you have OOT fans, SE fans, Saga Fans, PT fans, EU fans, there is just so much out there now, the saturation has caused a rift among the SW fans that will never go back to what it was pre-SE(1997).

I also think VHS and eventually DVD killed all of these movies, as there was nothing better as a kid to turn on HBO and SW, Empire, or Jedi was on. You had no control back then when you watched it, and EVERYTIME it was on you stopped what you were doing and it was a magical 2 hour ride! I remember we would joke as friends, "As soon as you see that 20th Century Fox Logo come on and hear those drums, you knew a SW movie was coming on!"