The last person Disney bean counters gave that much free reign to was the director of John Carter. Between that and The Lone Ranger the studio lost a billion dollars.

Empire was a nightmare for Lucas three times the shooting schedule and budget he would have wanted.

Lucas would have shot it dirty and quick with few if any retakes or reshoots and would have had more camera coverage, similar to how Jedi and Star Wars were made. And assembled the film in editing. He would have not done slow character moments, long setups , or encouraged good acting.

I am sure other than huge inflation the weather In Finse was not on Kershner's side. Still Lucas was on the hook with the bank loan and that cannot be fun even if Empire unlike Spielberg's 1941 made a big profit.

Even after all the compromises on Jedi to keep the budget down it still cost far more than Lucas would have liked. But the time he made Phantom Menace and it cost more than double what Jedi cost did he feel different i don't know.

Wasn't Phantom Menace budgeted at 95 million or something?