I don't think I have to apologize for anything about the Prequels. I still stand by what I thought then: they're not great movies but they certainly aren't terrible as people popularly make them to be.
That said, even though the execution was flawed, I genuinely like the story of Anakin Skywalker and find it compelling. To me, it makes sense why he'd just snap one day; it's been building up in him ever since he was a kid. He's whisked away by Jedi when he's just a boy and they fill his head with ideas that he's special from the day they met. When he's a grown man and sees that his life hasn't fulfilled this glorious purpose people imposed on him, his ego is shattered and he's conflicted. Is there something wrong with him, or the Jedi, as to why he didn't meet his destiny? The only solace in his life is the woman he wound up marrying; the only person genuinely cares for. When he's then plagued with visions of her dying, why wouldn't he go and set the world on fire to prevent her from dying? Of course, the ultimate tragedy is that his actions to try and prevent her death are ultimately the ones that lead to her death. Then, once encased in the iron lung, and everything stripped from him once again, it makes sense he becomes a cold, brutal machine doing the bidding of the Emperor. He's been the only sure thing in his entire life.
With this in the background, I feel it makes the ending to RotJ all the more compelling, when Luke removes Vader's helmet and sees a shriveled husk of a man who, at the very last of moments of his life, feels the crushing weight of regret for the actions in his life. When he finally dies, the one gleam of pride he has is that his son had the strength to shun the path that he didn't.
I don't know about you but that's some powerful **** to me.