So adding layers of detail and nuance to a world is suddenly the mark of shitty writing, now? Is Tolkien suddenly a shitty writer because he created a compendium like The Silmarillion to itemize everything from the origins of Middle Earth, to the functionality of magic and Quenya?
Boy, I'm glad people like you aren't in charge of any fiction that I love, because the kind of worldbuilding and mythology you're advocating for sounds vague and boring as fuck.
wait, are you trying to tell me the PT had good writing?
even if we go with that, that specific scene is still shit if you understand what's the purpose of it: to explain everyone with a quick exposition dump how OP anakin is, because george lucas apparently assumed there were still people around who didn't know that anakin is fucking darth vader. so instead of showing everyone his force potential over time (which plebs might miss), he had the evian bottle carrier pull out a star wars geiger counter to
tell the audience his
force power midichlorian count is OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!, so they could do their best keanu reeves expression and go "whoa dude!".
since that's now a thing, why don't we measure qui-gon's while we're at it? obi-wan's? and that's apparently also a common practice, are there rules around it like you need a specific count to be a jedi? can you improve it? can you lose it? do sith have sith-midichlorians that make them evil? are they red too? where are all the other details to explain that detail and nuance?
here's the most important question you need to ask yourself next time: does any of this even fucking matter? what "layer of detail and nuance" was actually added here instead of qui-gon saying "the force is strong in him, stronger than I've ever felt in one so young"? there is literally no need for a knee-jerk gadget or scientific measurements. then have yoda or the whole council repeat it later to reinforce (by a fictional authority which even the dumbest audience can understand what that means) that kid darth vader is indeed OP as fuck already and consider it a liability since there is no way to know how much stronger he's gonna get growing up. easily explained in a way that makes sense and organically woven into the story, instead of shoving stat blocks in the viewer's face.
so yes, for that specific scene at least and for the issues it caused, it's absolutely shit writing.
and since you mentioned it, the silmarillion is
boring as fuck. it's the equivalent of a middle earth phone book which only appeals to fans, and even among those only to a specific niche. the majority watched the movies,
maybe read the books, but that's it (personally I wouldn't call those people fans, but that's just me). they don't care and while it's nice to know what happened before from a nerd standpoint, it's pretty much irrelevant for the story of a hairy feet manlet fed-exing some jewelry across the continent.
don't get me wrong, I still respect tolkien for the scope and depth he gave his creation and that it's there if you want to know more, but in the end it's not necessary information for the story people came for. same way not every star trek fan is studying operation manuals or ship blueprints, or most star wars "fans" never reading anything about george lucas' creation myth or EU, or even want to.
People often complain that the PT de mystified the force-when the same PT is the first to verbally bring up the “netherworld of the force”, the Sith’s goal of immortality, and the affect of visions. It’s very mystical. Midi Chlorians simply are a mechanism in which measure how deeply one can interact with the mystical. Which is why Anakin and Luke are force sensitives and Han Solo(whose Midi Chlorian count must be much much smaller) is not.
putting a speedometer you can read with a phone app on someone's force level and say "well, george lucas also dropped some nebulous stuff like netherworld and visions and shit, it's still mystical y'all!". might as well go and claim your car runs on techno magic since most people don't know how a combustion engine works and it will got to car heaven - it's mystical!
the point of the mysticism (or ambiguity really) is that people can comprehend it easily and fill out the blanks themselves, meaning their imagination gives them the best possible version in their head. they don't need to know how strong someone is in numbers, how those numbers are measured and what that number even
means. autistically explaining every detail is just boring for most people, and detracts from the experience because suddenly their headcanon that worked for them so far is void, and there's a good chance they gonna disagree with the "official" version.
or to give you an example: there's a reason the heroes ride off into the sunset at the end and the movie is over - the hero defeated the villain, survived and got the girl. do you
really need to know what happens next? do you want to? because that means accepting every possible outcome equally; even if it turns out your heroes didn't actually defeat the villain, they all ended up as losers, it didn't work out with the girl, their kid started listening to linkin park and the only reason they're even there is for nostalgia and so the writer can kill them off for LE EPIC TWEEST aping better material.
the urge to say "how does that work" and "what happens next" is understandable, and everybody has it, but you should be aware that also means it could be shit, and there are no backsies once that box has been opened and you looked into it.
(bah, edit ate that part)
But midi count doesn't determine your "Force power level" or connection. General Grievous had an ass load of midichlorians pumped into him and it didn't grant him any Force stat bonuses, all it did was give him a greater pain tolerance and slightly stabilized his deteriorated body.
it did when lucas dropped it in TPM. most people went "ah, that means how strong he is, got it", with a few nerds going "wait, what?!"
everything afterwards was scrambling to "fix" it by saying "nono, see it's not what it means and actually works differently etc.".
it's not on the same level as hyperspace ramming, but certainly in the same vein.
