In fact a prequel trilogy without Yoda, but with the Jedi constantly refering to him as the "big boss" of all Jedi would surely even increase the surprise of the puppet in ESB.

Having a chronological order should not be a problem for a good storyteller, to preserve surprise and play with the audience. On the contrary, it should have been the strenght of the prequels:

Can you imagine the fun of a father showing the prequels to his son, and his son saying to him "Wow, this Yoda guy they all talk about is surely a powerful warrior! Hope we'll see him!". You know what I mean.

Instead we, well, we had a powerful warrior Yoda, indeed... and the fun is gone. I'm sure the kid from my exemple would prefer the "size does not matter" lesson without having in mind: "Size does not matter: because even small you can always jump everywhere twirling your lightsaber and throwing force lightning at your ennemy's face. Having high Midichlorian count in your blood is a plus".

I know that for a child, action in movie is fun. But A child is a learning machine, he always prefer to learn something. Lucas somehow forgot that. He wanted to make the prequels for children, but it's not even that, IMO. As some other said, there not for child, they're childhish. At the OT time, every child wanted to LEARN the force. When you are powerful, because you have more midichlorians in your blood, the fun is gone, specialy for kids.

Oh, and kids do not always like kids to be the main protagonist. When I was young I surely would die to be Short Round, but in fact I really wanted to be Indy, not the kid beside him. So yes, Starting with Anakin as a kid was not a good idea. Even for a movie "made for kid".

Jesus, that was a long time I did not write that long about the prequels. I guess I can remain silent a while now. :)