Thanks very much! The family dinner scene is hardly cinematic gold, but I agree with the fan editors who preceded me in including it for its value in demonstrating some suppressed infatuation on Padme’s part. In AOTC, it seems like Padme can’t stand Anakin until she abruptly falls for him. This deleted scene bridges the early “you’re just that little kid” stuff and their “bonding” on Naboo before Anakin has his nightmare. In AOTC, she seem to loathe having him around, she kisses him and immediately regrets it (probably because he’s such a moron), she has to make up a reason for him to leave her alone (“I’m a senator”), and then transitions into falling in love with him as he confesses to genocide.
However, one thing for us to consider about the family dinner scene is that in my edit of ROTS, we do not see her family at her funeral. So… yeah, there’s that. I’m still inclined to keep it for its use in showing Padme having feelings for Anakin. It also gives a touch of resistance to them, so their romance doesn’t seem 100% linear. (Since I had to remove so much of the “we just can’t be togehter because of x y z.”)