I agree. I was never a big Star Wars head but I did like them when I saw them as a kid. I think the setting tends to have an impact on people, especially sci-fi-minded ones, because it’s an old story with proven resonance, told with practical effects that satisfy your values if you like deserts, swamps, grody aliens, and techbases.
I also liked the prequels when I was a kid, but only the effects aspects that satisfy basic cravings for unreal stuff and imagination aids: big mysterious sea monsters in an undersea tunnel, a gloomy rainy planet with an ocean surface of which we only ever see about a square mile, the blue electric spheres like giant marbles that are loaded into cannons. I don’t remember any emotionally affecting moments when you are (helped to be) forced to feel what a character feels by the “classic movie” synergy of narrative events, visuals, and music.
On the other hand, I still remember the scene where Luke finds the bodies of his guardians, even though I haven’t seen it in like 10 years, because all the themes (music, visual, narrative) unite to gracefully and non-aggressively get across this unspeakably horrible image. It’s not actually very hard to do this in a way that people will accept.