But they do need to if they're gonna avoid having their opinion colored by OT nostalgia, which is THE main factor in PT hate. (Admit it, the hatred wouldn't be so intense if the prequels were compared to anything other than the OT)
OT nostalgia might be why some people are so venomous against the PT but it certainly isn't the reason the films are disliked in the first place. If they had no connection to the OT then they'd just be another Lost in Space or Wild Wild West. Awful movies that no one really gets worked up about because no one gives them the time of day.
But the whole "OT nostalgia" really is just a scapegoat that PT lovers like use to validate the prequels. The truth is that if someone watches the two completed Star Wars trilogies in episodic order (I-VI) they don't have any kind of grand perspective on all six films because they never got to see the original movies at all. "Oh you mean the original theatrical releases?" No. I mean Star Wars itself (whether you want to call it SW, ANH, or "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.") Guys like WWEJedi literally don't know what that movie is. Because if you watch it as a continuation of the prequels you are literally watching a different film. It's a tainted film. Different. Not one "free from nostalgia," no it's literally a different movie.
And of course THAT movie is suckier and more in line with the prequels and that can be a really confusing thing for someone who doesn't understand.
Because when we all watched Star Wars in 1977 and the door to the Blockade Runner blew open and the Stormtroopers came marching through we saw this imposing figure in black step through the smoke and unanimously thought, "wow, what a badass." But someone who watches the PT first will see him entering the Blockade Runner and will just think, "oh here's P***y Boy again." And then they go watch this new trilogy about the redemption of P***y Boy and they don't see why the story is supposedly so much better than the PT. Because their whole paradigm for viewing the films is ****ed up.
It has nothing to do with nostalgia. At all. It's some of us watching the OT and viewing one set of characters and others watching the OT with prequelized versions of those characters and having a completely different viewing experience. You never hear anyone say "I watched ROTJ first so ANH and ESB are lame. I guess I'm just too nostalgic for ROTJ." You never hear that because you *can* watch films out of order and appreciate them if they're good. But the prequels aren't. They just weren't well done on so many levels.
Nobody? I for one forgave the execution because I thought the story and concepts were sound.
"Forgave?"

Forgiving the execution isn't respecting it, which is what I was talking about.
Not if you're trying to show the transition from total innocence to total corruption. There's a rationale for every decision, whether you agree with it or not.
You don't need to show someone at age 10 to have a proper transition from innocence to corruption. If the sequel trilogy ends with Rey turning evil and becoming horribly scarred it will be much more heartbreaking than what we saw in the PT and we didn't need an entire movie showing her running around Jakku as a kid.