Yes, Lucas has certainly made some odd and wilful decisions. And it does support the argument that he doesn't know - or care? - about his own creation. It's a mindset against which I've resisted but when he resurrects dead characters and says that small ships can have cloaking devices you do have to wonder sometimes...
But yes, in The Clone Wars I can finally believe in Obi-wan's reference to Anakin in A New Hope as being "a good friend".