It's a few action scenes placed through an absolute slog of a movie.

I would obviously disagree, that's my exact problem with TPM. AotC is not a good movie but at least it's entertaining. I really don't think it's nostalgia, this isn't a movie I grew up on, I saw it as a teenager and it just happened to be my introduction to Star Wars. I'm not defending one of my favorite films, just saying I think it's less bad than the alternative.

The fact that the CGI hasn't aged well doesn't make the movie bad, and that's more of a problem in TPM than AotC anyway because one of the main characters is CGI and it's an even older movie. At least Jango went out fighting one of the most powerful jedi in the order instead of being accidentally hit in the back by a blind mind lol, but I won't argue that it's a little anticlimactic.

My biggest problem with the Dooku duel is that it's got some really awkward and jarring cuts. You could tear apart choreography in any Star Wars lightsaber fight, that's not exclusive to this scene. Even in the OT the fights were extremely clunky and awkward. Personally I prefer the over-choreographed prequel duels to the "let's hit out lightsabers together twice and then talk for 5 minutes before doing it again" of ANH and ESB. I love the RotJ duel but even in that you can find scenes where Luke aimlessly swings at the air.

Watching it again, you definitely have a point about him holding his lightsaber over Obi-Wan for an extremely unrealistic amount of time. I don't see the staring content you're talking about though.