Father Skywalker said:
you are very nostaglic about the good ol days of the originals trilogy; however, in my opinion, neither trilogy is all that good on its own
Star Wars was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 1977, including Best Picture. It is perennially listed among the top 15 films of all time by the AFI. Personal preferences aside, by any objective measure there is no comparing the quality and relative impact of the OT versus the PT.