While having Darth Vader building See-throughpio was daft, and having Boba Fett's dad being the clone template was daft, I don't think having a single ship appearing through the saga, changing shape and function as it changes hands is universe shrinkage.

Look at a fine film like The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) for inspiration.

It actually expanded the world the story was in by having the single object being the needle by which the generation spanning narrative is sewn.

Similarly Black Beauty (1946) has many stories linked by one horse being passed to different owners. Showing a snap shot of history both urban and rural.

It's pure fan service of that there is no denying but fan-service of a much higher calibre .

You could use it to fix one of the most annoying things about TPM with it too.

The royal yacht could have it's decorative plating removed to be sold to release Anakin's mother from slavery so while she can't be with her son she is no longer property.

That way the evolution of the ship becomes part of the story.

In ROTS the cargo arms could be installed finally defining the shape as being the one we will recognise later but it still has enough luxury to it to appeal to a buyer like Lando.

Come the next film it's had several owners and looks very different.

Come the sequels it's had a few more modifications.

The real universe as we see it isn't encountering new things all the time.

We only see a small portion of the things available to be seen in one lifetime so a fictional universe should be allowed a degree of that (as with R2 and C3P0 and in this case the Falcon... maybe).