Yeah, although I didn't grow up in that era (I was only born in 89', and was too young), I find a lot of the stuff that came out of that era to be some of the best (movies, TV, Reagon).
The point is, Lucas liked Hayden in the role. And if the guy spending over ten years of his life and hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money on the project says he likes it, then that's what counts.