I’ve been noticing this myself lately. It seems like there’s a big rise in prequel-apologizing lately. Lots of people saying “ehh, they’re not that bad” or some kind of nostalgia kick. I’m watching a lot of The Star Wars Show (and after show) on YouTube, and it’s full of this weird thing where they keep slipping in PT love.
I’m not digging it.
I think the prequels had some good concepts. They don’t really work out in the movies, mostly because of Lucas (side note, I think the main cast of the prequels were all fine actors, even Hayden, they just lacked direction). There’s 3 main things that made the prequels tolerable for me; the RotS novelization, TCW TV show, and the fact that I was stupid and young when I first saw them. I set up an idealized version of the PT in my head, I performed some mental gymnastics to explain why TCW Anakin is so different from whiny and awkward movie Anakin, and I threw the RotS movie out and replaced it with the novelization.