See, I never found that he emphasized the special effects in the PT. I always found those three movies to be very fast paced - almost too much so. I can’t think of any scene that should be cut because it is just an FX fest. I really hate the droid factory scene in ATOC, but that is because it is cliched and badly done, not because it is full of effects. The shots are more dynamic than the OT, but I don’t find that there are too many effects. The OT are filled with matte paintings as well as other FX. I do find the story in the PT to be less compelling than that OT, but I think that has to do with how much of a downer the entire idea is. The Republic falls, the Jedi are hunted down, the good guys go into hiding. None of that really makes for great story telling. And he pulled the same shenanigans as he did in the OT by changing the story here and there as he went. And did he fix any of that in the SE? Not one bit. I have been aware of how much practical effects were used in the PT. My guess is as to why it looks more CG is that all the compositing was done digitally, lending a digital look to the finished product even though only some of it was digitally created. When you look at the sets that were pure CG, they tend to be in the background of some character driven scenes, such as the duel with Darth Maul in TPM.