Midichlorians is just the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, it ruins the Force/the Jedi, turning them from a religion to basically just X-Men, but that's peanuts compared to changing Jedi from being an esoteric order of warrior monks (remember, Han Solo says he's been all over the galaxy and *never* heard of the Force) to actually being the galaxy's space cops just 20 years ago. That means Han was alive when the Jedi were still venerated. Little slave Ani on Tatooine knew more about the Jedi than Luke did when he was on the cusp of joining the Rebellion; the prequels straight up do not fit in the same universe as the original trilogy without crazy mental gymnastics. Darth Vader was literally mocked to his face for being a religious fruitcake in episode 4, that's how much presence the Force originally had.