Padme is only vapid and dimensionless in the PT films as they currently stand.
If the OT was made to unhappen Anakin would be much, much worse.
It's his Vader persona that's interesting and has impact.
In ROTJ as it stands she gets barely a mention.
Padme as either an historical influence or a mystically or technologically revived character could define the character anew for the ST in much the same way that Vader is a distinct character from Hayden's Anakin.
Imagine Leia in a fix unearthing a cache of holographic memoirs of her mother.
How would she react to her.
Even if the PT remains unaltered there is potential there to take all the things we see as awful about the character and turn them into pluses.
She marries a guy AFTER telling her he killed women and children.
She loses the will to live AFTER JUST GIVING BIRTH over the fate of a the man who just slaughtered children, all his friends and handed the galaxy over to a Sith Lord (not to mention tried to kill his pregnant wife).
If you were Leia and had Force powers how would you react to that?
How would you respond to your children after learning that?
How would that effect the people you represent (if she is still a politician).
See what I mean?
Turn the wonkyness of the PT into a stronger ST.