doesn't understand the fan fascination with Star Wars

I believe it, as he clearly had no direction with his Kenobi acting. It's like he just put on his posh English Alec Guinness voice he'd done all his childhood and thought it was great. He was wrong. He was terrible.
Star Wars is better with lesser-known actors. Samuel L Jackson was another awful choice, who Lucas failed to direct.
Christensen was wrongly blamed for the failures, he actually had the best scenes, like when the Sand People had raped and killed his mother (actually Yoda's fault for making Anakin an orphan and leaving his mother a slave...and then still refusing to train him for being "too old" - Luke was 30!).