I agree with everything you said Bingo, apart from your new-found optimism for the prequels. I'm not sure they can really be made to work. The performances are almost uniformly stilted (as they are in Jedi, save for Ian McDiarmid and Frank Oz) and I just don't see how any amount of tinkering can imbue sufficient emotional depth into films that are all so totally devoid of it.
But yeah, your others points are commendable.