Nah Lucas has always been overly descriptive and never trusted the audience, it was Kurtz who insisted on the force being ethereal and Lucas wanted the Kiber Crystal , then Lucas went back and agreed with Kurtz on compromise.

But that was before the yes men and sycophants.

Some of the worst Prequel ideas seem to have been discarded ideas from abortive drafts of the first film star wars known now as episode IV.

These prototype scripts are available for all to read on the jedi bendu script page.

I cannot prove it but i am more than willing to believe a lot of material left out of the first 3 films and discarded was simply used in the prequels because of no budget constraints and no being fought by the studio or his helpers to weave a coherent narrative, a big part of which was Marcia's sensibilities as an editor.

The most enjoyable human elements were stripped almost completely away beginning with the phantom menace in being replaced by snazy graphics that pop off the screen and say " look at me im a special effect. No story need apply look at the pretty backgrounds pay no attention to the nonsensical story or the bad acting." And horrendous pacing and bad editing, not to mention how they ruined a good many john Williams pieces with the edits they did.