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When ANH came out, aside from the Death Star being destroyed and, presumably, this being a rallying cry for the Rebellion, it wasn't assumed much damage was done to the Empire. Of course the Death Star's destruction couldn't be understated but it seemed that beyond that, the Empire was mostly still intact.

What's quiet interesting about Andor and Rogue One, though, is they've painted a picture of the Empire eating itself in such a destructive manner, to get the Death Star up and running, that they effectively purged a ridiculous amount of their high command. This may even be why it took years for them to reengage with the Rebels in earnest at Hoth and why it was Vader directly leading the campaign rather than a different officer.

It seems the final episodes of Andor take place a week prior to Rogue One/ANH at best. Hell, let's assume the entire thing takes two weeks.

In that time:

Axis is lost, compromising critical imperial leads regarding the Rebellion, how it operates, who is a part of it, where it's connections lead, where the moles are, everything.

Half the ISB board on Coruscant is effectively purged. Among them, Partagaz, who was really the only one stopping them all from nakedly eating each other, and Meero, who is possibly the Empire's best agent in regards to actually understanding the Rebel insurgent efforts. Honestly, for the war effort, this is possibly a bigger issue than even the Death Star being destroyed, given that the new hires, desperate to keep their positions rather than do their job, will likely be even less effective.

Krennic, the Edho research facility, Scariff, and Jedha are all effectively destroyed. Given that Jedha in particular was being mined for Kyber, this may have delayed construction of the DS2 due to them blowing up their mine to cover their tracks. Likewise, Edho contained most of the scientists actually working on the DS so that was a significant brain drain.

The Death Star itself is destroyed, which along with meaning the station itself is gone, also led to the death of much of the imperial high command, including Tarkin and numerous high level generals, admirals, and Moffs.

In retrospect, it's actually no surprise it took years for the empire to "strike back" given their military bureaucracy had been destroyed due to their own arrogance.