Nah. He would've introduced some new ideas, but the ST is very similar to his sequel pitch. And the talk of going into the microbiological world of the Midichlorians or something sounds new, but terrible. And if he was at the helm we wouldn't have gotten TLJ (or a terrible version of a similar story)
For how much the PT was part of my teenage years, having revisited all Star Wars movies in the run-up to TROS it was very clear the ST is way better than the PT, which manages to fuck up a very clear and straightforward 'fall'-story. It has good stuff in them, but the terrible is absolutely terrible and as a whole they don't really work.
The ST (just like the OT) falters in it's final movie. (I liked TROS the first time, the second time the flaws became way more apparent, but I still feel a lot of the ideas are there, and some scenes work - though JJ has a knack of aiming at the audience in stead of at the characters, which becomes more apparent on a second watch. There is just a lot of stuff that is mediocre or misguided. Bringing back Palpatine was a mistake) It gave us a very fun opening movie setting up some great new characters, followed it up with an amazing middle part that really struck home how much I love these characters, and finished it of with a very uneven last one I can still enjoy because after the previous two I love these characters so much.
The main issue with the ST is TROS, which probably would've been way better if it didn't have the shortened production schedule after sacking Trevorrow. Because overall that movie just feels rushed and undercooked.
