Despite the story happening right before the events of A New Hope, Andor I think proves that you can make a show this good set in the Star Wars universe and just create new characters and stories that intertwine with bigger events and have the new stuff be 10 times more fascinating than you expected

Like yes they need the kalkite for the Death Star, but you don't actually NEED to know that part. The most interesting parts of Andor aren't Member Berries, they're usually brand new (for the show) characters or brand new narratives and plot points.

This isn't Solo figuring out how the nail down every detail of the Kessel Run, this is a new story that had limitations on when it could happen because it's called Andor and is still a prequel at the end of the day, but most of the meat of the show was invented for this show.

I have said for a long time that where Solo forgot that it was supposed to be a prequel, it worked. They could have just made a good movie about Han Solo and his friends and enemies before the movies. It would have worked!!

I think Solo is mostly an underrated movie. The parts where it fails (uninteresting main character in a sea of far more interesting characters, L3-37's bizarre fate, etc) are because it was being a prequel to its detriment, but I wish more people had given it a chance.