"If I lived on Tatooine I'd try to come up with something fun to do then, even though the podrace as a story element is boring and ridicilous and shouldn't exist just because of that."
You mean like bullseying (spelling?) womp rats with his T-16.
Unfortunately I think the real answer to the original post is poor decisions by GL when he made the special editions & prequels.
(someone needs to get OBIWAN37 in here to provide some balance!)