I also agree that the prequels get too much hate. They're definitely flawed though. My biggest problem with them is the writing and George Lucas's unwillingness to give up some degree of control. The actors they got were actually good actors. It's just that George Lucas isn't a good writer. He pretty much knew this but wouldn't hand the writing duties over to anyone else. Jar Jar is an example of this. I understand what his purpose and role was supposed to be and his character wasn't a bad idea but the execution was poor. Other than that, the movies were fine with episode III being the best of the prequels.
Haters also forget the criticisms that the older movies used to get. When A New Hope came out, a lot of fans and critics did not like R2-D2 and C3PO. They were seen as being too comedic. The Empire Strikes Back had received average reviews at the time of it's release with many critics calling it a slow, boring film. Fans at the time hated that Yoda, the master of all Jedi was nothing more than a muppet. Return of the Jedi was heavily criticize for having too much puppetry and long before Jar Jar, the Ewoks were the single most hated thing in all of Star Wars.
So yes, even the so-called perfect trilogy wasn't considered perfect when they were new.
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