See, it's just fan service.
What exactly are you looking forward to seeing young Paulie do? The same shit he was doing for six seasons of the original series, just played by a different actor doing an impression of the character and playing to the audience.
What story needs to be told with this prequel? No story, because we already know all the characters and events. And Chase can't even come up with something surprising and dramatic and consequential, because if it happened then we would have known about it from the original show.