I don’t see why films about the Sith Empire or the Mandolorian Wars would need to take the place of the PT though. Those could easily exist without splitting the continuity. I just feel like the last thing Disney wants to do is complicate the timeline. They’re all about bringing in new fans right now, and introducing alternate continuities would be a bad move for that. Better to just build around the prequels and reference them as little as possible.

I can’t remember if it was here or the AV Club, but at some point I heard someone say that their personal canon was that the prequels are factually accurate, but that the films themselves as we know them are essentially in-universe B-movies of the actual events that took place. That’s pretty much the attitude I’ve adopted since reading that, and I’m fine with sticking with it.