But the way Hayden Christensen is treated is fair game, right ?
Despite actual video footage of George showing him the way he wants the lines delivered.
I don't think he was treated the same, as far as I know. Jake had to grow up in grade school with the fact that he was a big part of the prequel criticism. Sure, they're both ridiculed online based on the fact that their performances were terrible (regardless of who was responsible), but Jake had to actually LIVE it during the most crucial/trying stages of human development/interaction.
I've seen Hayden in other things and although he's better I don't think he's a good actor, by any means.
But again.. this is all George's doing and decision making.
He's the key to all this. Even when presented with clearly better alternatives (look up young Anakin auditions), he consistently made horrible decisions.
I dont remember feeling almost insulted at the sickening pandering at every turn while watching TPM, that movie has very different problems that of TFA.
You can make a compelling argument that TFA has more "callbacks", but not that TPM doesn't have nearly the exact same story beats of ANH. Which is what I had originally highlighted in your post. You can apply the exact same surface criticisms to both TFA and TPM in that regard.
But people are unwilling to recognize this fact because George Lucas was in charge of virtually all major creative decisions in regard to the PT. And naturally.. since he created SW, he couldn't have copied any of his previous films/done something unoriginal.. right?