I agree on the Republic, not a very interesting take on the trilogy. I think that a trilogy that states that things can get even "worse" in terms of organisation/anarchy after the fall of the Empire could be a mature new insight to the general situation of the star wars universe.

Surely democracy is better than any dictatorship, but since Thomas Hobbes it can be argued than a strong central administration could be better than having no government or administration at all; if the trilogy has such an approach, a "feudal" galaxy, full of local gangsters and tribal leaders feels plausible for the "taste" of the fans feeling like star wars (at least if the taste of the fans can be asimilated to those 4 points to make a great star wars movie that hangs around the internet), while making room for new stories, in a Universe that instead of solving the social issues created by the Empire, suffers from its consequences in a worse way, just as the early middle ages were an intensification of some processes that started during the late antiquity.

Or even the local oligarchies formed in 1990s Russia, when communist-party leaders migrated to capitalism and became multimillonaires in economic control of the regions they ruled before.

Republic - Empire - Middle Ages. Could be.