buddy-x-wing said:

By introducing Anakin so young they wasted a whole movie

I would argue that it was exactly the opposite. By introducing him as a child, Lucas endeared a new, and very young, generation of revenue stream to the franchise. They all felt like the main character - exactly the way I felt like the main character in 1977.

For me and Star Wars, it was teenage boy day-dreaming about adventure - connecting with a teenage boy day-dreaming about adventure.

For children and Phantom, it was a child living in a video game - connecting to an audience of children familiar with video games. They and their new hero were outsiders in an adult world, much the same way teenage Luke and I were stuck in mundane worlds while we dreamed of adventure.

Story isn't important to Lucas anymore because it's no longer necessary for success. In 1977, he had to put much more thought into the story, so he and his support team did just that. For Phantom, none of that mattered anymore. Entirely different films for entirely different purposes.