And they whipped them out for every little thing. In the OT, when a lightsaber was drawn, the room got quiet. In the PT, it was every other scene. I get that it was a different time period, but I don’t care for that excuse. If Lucas had simply limited the amount of time you saw a lightsaber in the PT, he wouldn’t even have to write a spectacular scene for those moments. You would immediately feel excitement from the sight of the lightsaber. If Obi-Wan had never used his lightsaber until the fight with Darth Maul in Episode I, the scene would have been infinitely more impactful with the exact same shots.
This is very true, the lightsaber is a tool to convey the drama in a scene. It is less of a visual distraction than it is a way to make an emotional scene more interesting. It shows a characters anger or fear when they draw it.