Harmy, Gaffer, Zombie, CP3S, etc... all pretty much said:
Regarding Xhonzi's question of whether or not we'd still pursue a proper release of the original if a replica of the original was made with newly composited special effects. Absolutely I would. I wouldn't even bother spending money on a set that only replicated the look of the original.
Judge me how you will:
This whole conversation has made me realize that while I feel and understand the need to preserve these films as they were, I care MORE about my being able to enjoy them. The SEs don't offend me so much because they're not the original versions, but because they are terrible. They took something that was good enough, and tried to improve it- instead they weighed it down with goofiness and camp.
It offends me because its UNWATCHABLE more than because it is NOT ORIGINAL.
So something that had the story and goofiness changes undone (which is most of them) and looked like the original would satisfy me personally. Could you call it a restoration? I suppose not, in the technical sense of that word. Would I still say that the films should be restored? Maybe. But I can assume that I would be so busy watching an enjoyable version of the film that I wouldn't be here complaining about it. Ady's ESB reconstruction is seriously good enough for me. It saddens me that it's not widely available and is considered illegal by some.
Regarding Fink's comment about how many little changes have been made over the years. I guess to some of you we may come off as comically anal,
This is kind of my thought process. To the outside world, we are an unsatiable group what will never be happy no matter what Lucas releases. The GOUT was obviously meant as a slap to the face, so we took it that way and weren't satisfied. But if something that looked and played like the originals was released- without it meeting every point on our list of demands, and we (the OOT demanding community) still demanded more- Well, I can hear the response now.
So... call me a coward. Call me selfish. But I prioritize my own enjoyment of the trilogy over needs/wants of "film history". Perhaps that makes me no better than someone who enjoys the SEs (except that I have taste) but it is what it is.
but tiny little changes here and there aren't that big of a deal to me, but completely redoing the special effects is not a tiny little change. That is a massive overhaul, even if it is done to resemble the original as closely as possible sans the "flaws".
We're still talking about recompositing original elements, right?