I’ve been watching The Clone Wars. I’d say that, if taken as part of the prequel trilogy, they repair a lot of the damage caused by Lucas deeming character and plot development unimportant to a film. Especially, your last point, which, I still absolutely agree with (along with the others).
It also greatly improved the characters of General Greivous and Count Dooku, who in the films are really kinda just there with little reason to actually care about them beyond SFX and fight scenes (and Christopher Lee).