What Lucas has wanted is essentially a Bond-like franchise where there can be infinite adventures all under one brand name. Then all of the fans will simply go and see the new adventure simply because it has the logo.

What he doesn't realize is that while the original Bond films didn't go in the order of the books, they all (save You Only Live Twice) had strong connections to their source material. And in the continuing films, there was a loose continuity with what had gone on before.

Beginning with ROTJ and even ESB to an extent everything became interwoven in order to form the idea of what is now called "the saga". And no, by the time of ROTJ's pre-production I don't think the principals involved really "wanted" to be there, but were there out of obligation to the story and to the fact that the revenues would be unbelievable. Thus everything that you think would happen or could conceive of does not occur and we are left with a definite feeling of lacking in the conclusion. Case in point: Harrison Ford pretty much begs to get his character killed off. If that doesn't show you that you have problems with your story then I don't know what does.

I still haven't made up my mind how I would introduce someone to Star Wars. It certainly wouldn't have anything to do with the prequels. Overall, it would be best to view the OOT and then the 97s if people wanted to see some changes that were made.