m_s0 said:

Long story short: I'd say making Tatooine pretty is like creating a character who is supposed to be one thing - let's say a bad guy for the sake of argument - but who doesn't display any traits or doesn't do anything (the personality thing you mentioned) which would make him seem like he's the bad guy.

No. That analogy is completely wrong. A proper analogy would be having a character who displays the same personality traits, but in one version he is good-looking and in the other he is not-so-good-looking.

Let's take the Ben's house shot for example. SE shot presents Ben's house just as pathetic and poor as the original shot does. The difference is that in the original version it is an awful close-up shot that captures nothing but one wall of the house. On the other hand, SE shot additionally includes the natural environment. Therefore the two shots relay identical main information (poor house), while SE additionally relays information about natural environment (which is as it is, despite the human poverty).