I've also had an evolving relationship with it. I went from disliking it (never that strongly) to simply liking it the least, to respecting it.
Back when I disliked it or liked it the least, I just felt it was an unnecessarily early starting point that answered questions I didn't have. If Anakin were just another jedi without an elaborate backstory of being discovered late, his downfall could have been paced out better. Because I thought it needed to be paced out better.
Boy was I wrong. The turning point for me was watching fan edits of the prequel trilogy with every usable deleted scene added back in. In the extended Attack of the Clones, it's clearer that Anakin is failing as a jedi. It's not what he had in mind. And he's homesick. And Obi-Wan is holding him back. It becomes so much more important that the story started before he became a jedi, and has an outsider's view of what jedi are supposed to be. I think if he saved Shmi there's a strong chance he would have stayed on Tatooine and left the jedi order. And this wouldn't be walking away from the dream. This would be a fulfilment of the dream he describes in Phantom Menace. He'd use his powers to make life on Tatooine better. I think that's why Duel of the Fates plays when he searches for her. It's not just Shmi's life or death, and it's not that her death makes his fall inevitable. The two fates are stay a jedi or leave the jedi, right here right now.
The increased importance of Anakin's pre-jedi backstory helps Revenge of the Sith too. In Phantom Menace he thinks becoming a jedi means he's going to fly around the galaxy helping people. In Extended Attack of the Clones he almost leaves the jedi to live the dream. In Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine tells him there's still a chance. There is another option for a life where he uses his powers to help the people he cares about, without any code telling him no. There is nothing abrupt about Anakin's turn if one film ago he was already on the verge of walking away from the jedi. It's another chance at the life he wanted in the first place.
The story needs Phantom Menace.