I don't have any problem with CGI when it's done well. I'm not even bashing Lucas at all. While it's obvious that he used to much of his CGI toys in those movies, most of them look quite good (though they will not age well), it's just too much and not in the spirit of the original trilogy.
But the thing is that it's now getting cheaper to make CGI special effects. Well, cheaper to make quickly done and bad CGI special effect I mean. So now, even in poor direct to DVD movies we have bad CGI all the time. It's everywhere, and we are all getting tired of this I think. While the poor physical effects of the 80's B-movie were bad, they had and still have their charm. CGI don't IMO. At least for now.
CGI and special effect in general needs time and talented people. Hell, even Jar Jar needed a designer artist, an actor on the set, a physical statue (scanned in 3D later), several animators etc... It's not just pushing on a button. It's not an easy way to make special effects... if you want them to looks good, of course.
As for the 2004 Jabba... Well I think it looks better than the 1997 one. It's seems to be the same model than Episode 1 but they fucked up the lightning and his skin texture, while in EP1 it was... let's say... okay.