Well to be honest i guess Star Wars is not the only media driven franchise in which having having knowledge outside of the main thing is useful like Halo or Mass Effect, but you don't need to read the ancillary stuff in those to make things make sense, its sort of more like there is more to explore.

Just that the Prequels presuppose that you already are a walking star wars encyclopedia whereas the original films are clearly meant for the average filmgoer and have a coherent plot structure, beginning middle and end.

A character to root for etc.

I think having knowledge of the originals, sepcifically 1977-1983 trilogy hurts the prequels ebcause you already have a preconceived notion of things.

But on the other hand the newer trilogy acts as though you have had to have seen the other movies.

I wonder if you are one of these young kids who starts with episode 1 and sees them in the new canon order Lucas prefers them to be viewed in if they make any more sense to them than they do to an original trilogy old school fan who thinks the prequels are a 90's creation and not at all in line with the star wars vision circa 1977- 1983.