I’ve said many times that I would love a three-disc-per-movie release with unaltered, '97, and the new 4k SE (wouldn’t really care if the '04 and '11 versions weren’t included).
They could probably fit all the SEs versions (97, 04, 11) of a single film on a single disc w/seamless branching. They could also probably rope in the unaltered version as well, but then you’d be playing with fire in terms of color accuracy. It worked with Blade Runner (I think disc 1 of the 5-disc set contained the theatrical, international cut, and 1st director’s cut. I think.)
You read my mind! I was going to say all of this, but didn’t.
They could easily branch those three versions onto the same disc. I would want them to go with the '97 color timing, though. The color-timing of the lowry master isn’t worth preserving to me. A 4k scan of the '97 interpositive, given the proper restoration and mastering, would probably produce better results than the 2k scan / 1080p master of the o-neg did in 2004.
But yes, the actual content changes (landspeeder and Jabba re-do and aurebesh tractor beam signage in '04, blinking wicket and Vader Noooo in '11, etc) could probably be branched in without any problem since they’re so few and far between.
I doubt we’ll even get any of those three versions, though. Not even the '97. It will probably just be this new 4k version which, for all we know, might simply be the 2011 version in terms of content.
It was the middle of the three actual blu-rays on the five disc Blade Runner set that you’re thinking of. The second and fourth discs were just regular dvds with the Dangerous Days documentary and bonus features, respectively.
To be honest I would want them to keep the 04/11 versions the way they are, just to show how screwed up a movie can get that isn’t properly taken care of. Bit then again that’s my opinion.