Vaderisnothayden said:
As regards Anakin's age, it may not have been SAID in the film, but it certainly did get into the film, because we have this old actor playing Anakin. Any attempt to claim that well Anakin was 46 but prematurely aged is just obvious retcon. If they wanted a 46 year old Anakin they would have gotten an actor of compatible age. Nobody can reasonably look at the 77 year old on the screen and think there isn't something a bit funny with the idea of him being just 23 all of 23 years before like the present offical story says he was. Anakin was intended to be an old man in ROTJ and they put that in the film by making him an old man on the screen. Which puts him in his 30s or 40s at the time of his turn to the dark side.

And re the last bit, Luke and Leia's "kind" (see ROTJ) mother wouldn't likely have been hanging around with Anakin long after he turned dark, so the conception of the children would have been before Anakin turned or not long after he turned. We're also told (in ROTJ) that the children were hidden from Anakin when they were born, indicating Anakin had turned dark by the time they were born. This all places Anakin's turn sometime around the time of Luke's birth. All of that is consistent with the prequels version of the story. Luke is meant to be about 18-20 in the first film and ROTJ is a few years later (and the present version of the story has him 19 in ANH and 23 in ROTJ). That puts Anakin's turn at about 23 or so years before ROTJ. Which makes him 30s or 40s when he turned.

All the points you make about Anakin's age I agree with whole heartedly. The plot to TPM could have been identical, and perhaps slightly less annoying, with an older Anakin. He might have been in his late 20s in AOTC and clearly into his 30s by ROTS.

I also REALLY REALLY hate that Padme died, because it kills the sympathy for Luke that Leia was raised by her momma as a princess, and he was raised in a crummy desert by his crusty 'Uncle.' It also totally ruins one of Leia's key emotional moments, when she remembers her mom. It seems to me she could have faked her death, and lived in hiding for the remainder of her short life.

But arguing that Greivous, Maul, or Dooku did or didn't exist seems less important. Lucas clearly doesn't concern himself too much with the secondary villains in his stories (he calls them 'sidekicks'). Whether they existed or not in some form ("Apprentice Sith Lord" or "Droid General" or whatever) might be interesting, but not, in my opinon, terribly relevant to whether something is 'The original vision.'