Diego said:
just like when he was presented the design for the Jedi fighter and R2 could fit in there with a little bit of cheating. He doesn't care and has surrounded himself with a lot of idiots.
Who knows, maybe Lucas actually restrains some of the "computer people" at Lucasfilm, perhaps someone has already suggested to replace Yoda with CGI, only to be hold off by Lucas.
And let's not forget the cartoonish, unrealistic monstrosity of the Naboo fighter, that forces Artoo to have a stretchy neck just to cram himself into (although there's still no room for his headless body).
I seriously doubt that Lucas has to restrain anybody - the only sad thing is that like you said, there's no one who wants to restrain him!
As for the Sand People not noticing Artoo, I always figured it was because the Sand People don't give two shits about droids. They don't like using advanced technology, and in the OT droids are mostly seen as nothing more than tools that can talk. Artoo was probably "hiding" more as a reflex, not realizing that the Sand People wouldn't bother with him any more than they would bother a wrench. Droids always seemed to not realize that organics don't really regard them as very important - Luke gives a half-assed "hello" to R2 when C-3PO introduces them, Lando blows off C-3PO in ESB (although he WAS focused on Leia).
The rocks are pointless and unnecessary, is what I'm getting at.