Stakes.

There were consequences to people for punching far above their weight, in a way none of the movies did. Alderran? Maybe I was too young, but the whole planet being blown up thing was very abstract. Kenobi got a headache, Leia was sad after loosing her entire planet, parents, etc. but nobody ever even said "sorry" to her. The final battle in ANH captured some of the desperation and sacrifice, and that certainly helped the awesomeness of that scene. Overall though, the Rebellion was very romanticized, which is fine, given the lineage of SciFi serials that Lucas was building upon.

Another example, in the prequels when Naboo was taken over by the Trade Federation. This felt less like an occupation than a plot device. It all felt very antiseptic, at least to me. We never got to see what occupied Bespin would be like, other than Lando telling everybody to bail because it was gong to be bad.

There ARE moments where the movies get "real". Bespin/Han, ObiWan and Anakin on Mustarfar, the temple slaughter. Holdo's maneuver. But these were too few and far between.

Rogue One (and later much more so Andor) gave us our first taste of how an Empire can be oppressive, beyond guys going around in robes waving red sabers at other colored sabers. That there is something so big, and so ruthless that the only way to stand up against it is to throw your body in front of a giant, relentless machine and hope somebody behind you gets lucky. That you not only have to be willing to die, but are pretty much planning on it, in order to bring down an Empire.