I say we take everything that happened on Tatooine in the PT and put it on Nar Shaddaa or Nal Hutta.

It would make more sense because it's the heart of the underworld. It would make sense to have illegal podraces there with thousands of people from all over the galaxy. It would make more sense for a booming slave trade. It obviously makes more sense for the Hutts to control it (something you never hear any references to in the OT, not that there always has to be a legitimizing reference, but that's a pretty big deal). It makes more sense to find rare starship parts. It makes sense to hide there because you can just blend in with a crowd, though you can't just land out in the desert somewhere unrecorded, but surely there's some work-around, bribes, mind tricks (it worked in KOTOR). I suppose they'd take Repiblic credits, too, but meh. Whatever.

It's a good idea, it just needs work. I suppose you could argue that the Hutts abandoned Tatooine sometime after TPM and it fell apart after then, but you'd think with any kind of economy that someone would have filled the power vacuum.

Also Tarkin being briefed about the planet Vader lost the Death Star plans over makes perfect sense to me. Especially when there's only two confirmed cities and Mos Eisley is apparently the larger of the two.