On the Darth Jar Jar theory that @guizzy mentioned, I think the issue with Star Wars all along has been that they pretended the basic 9 stories were all preplanned, but each one feels like it was written by someone who was unfamiliar with the episode(s) that went before. Some have it more than others, of course.

The prequels feel like "Sunday night homework". If it is 03:00 on Sunday night / Monday morning and you have to turn in the script in five hours, you get the prequels and you can't figure out how to undig your holes.