I still don't find the prequels better after this.
But I will give them cred for not just being fan service and callbacks to the extent the new movies have been.
The problem both prequels and sequels have in common is the director-writers handling more than just directing, having too much creative control, in a sense. The same problem would have been suffered by the OT if George hadn't had competent editors and other people to rein him in and cut the films in a manner that was watchable and exciting. The OT would have had exactly the same issues if it wasn't "saved in editing" by Richard Chew and George's wife. We know that with the prequels George had too much power and nobody was willing to challenge him on his poor directing and story ideas. If given the choice, George would have written and shot a very boring soap opera series of Star Wars which is basically what happened to the prequels.
Fast forward to now and we have Disney handing the franchise over to people like JJ and Johnson with no clear through line established, and with these guys coming up with their own ideas and trying to "unwrite" each others' attempts at a story with each film. The end result being messy and kind of unsatisfying. Not least because neither of them were prepared to take any real "risks" with the Rey character to make her interesting. She was supposed to be the heroine, but because they wouldn't take risks, Kylo Ren outshines her.