In defence of the PT here (in this respect) there are very few scenes that have nothing to do with the main characters and those that do exist are very short.

But in a sense the whole Star Wars Galaxy is the main character in the whole saga and the space battle is pivotal to the resolution of the six part story so it makes sense to make it look as epic and conclusive as it can (it doesn't have to be longer just more convincingly decisive).

But the same is true of the ground battle too (the lightsabre duel needs a clean up and the sabres sorted out but there not much more that needs to be done there), as it stands the ground battle is even less convincing than the space battle but I being drawn into a ROTJ conversation here so I shall sit on my hands and post elsewhere from now on.