I don’t find prologues to be more helpful or hurtful than any other part of a book. Like epilogues, they could be called a chapter instead without making much of an impact on the story. If the prologue is interesting and necessary to the story, then I don’t see how it’s hurtful.
To share my personal experience regarding prologues, at various times I’ve had publishers and editors turn my prologue into a first chapter and a first chapter into a prologue. When this happens, it doesn’t bother me. As long as the scene is there for the reader, I don’t care if it’s called a prologue or a chapter.
As a reader and as a writer, prologues and epilogues have never changed my opinion of a story or my desire to read it.
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Yeah, this seems to be one of those issues that publishers and editors care more about than readers do. Thank goodness!