I don't have a problem with a story that isn't necessary in an OT context.

If anything the PT would have been stronger if it had avoided ticking too many OT boxes (like having Anakin the main focus).

The problem was the dearth of story altogether and the frequent absence of logic in the little story that is there.

Even the most insubstantial cipher of a character can function well in a well defined story which makes narrative sense.

The PT is as abstract as cinema can get, it's all shapes and colours without people or a flow of events but unlike something like a Lynch film it's all by accident not by design.