No, you can see the ribbing quite clearly when projected, unless the projector had very sloppy registration.
Anyway, I disagree with Steve, he is a capable guy, but he is a DP, and has only really been once since 2002, his experience with actual film is very little.
I’m not a DP, my day job is film restoration, I work with negs that far exceed 4K resolution on a daily basis, we can and do measure it. I certainly wouldn’t argue cameras or lenses with Steve, that is very much his domain, but when it comes to his knowledge of film stocks and their attributes, his experience isn’t extensive.
The ITU did tests back in 2000 that gave a vertical resolution of around 2700 lines for a scope print, and considerably higher for a negative.
Plenty of films, especially release prints look little different at 2K, but others have striking differences, text that is not readable below 3K, but is clear at 5K, the details like those in the doorframe, there is actually no way to keep that detail at 2K, even if you were rendering it directly from a computer model, there just isn’t enough pixels, and again, those are in the release print, not the neg. The neg would have superior resolution again.
With this particular print of the SE, we will do what we usually do, scan it at 6K, 4K and 2K and take a look at the scans, and see how much detail the print actually has. If it was in fact mastered at 2K, I won’t expect to see any difference between a 6K scan and 4K scan at all.
We would still scan it at 4K if it was 2K mastered though, otherwise we would absolutely lose details just due to the nature of scanning.
Projection is up for debate, there is no easy way to measure it, though attempt have been made, but so much depends on the equipment, screen, light and seating position.
It doesn’t really interest me though, I am an archivist, and if it is there on the print, I need it there in the scan, regardless of if that detail can be seen or not by a particular audience member in a particular cinema.
Preservation has different goals to commercial releases, for a commercial release, 2K would probably satisfy just about any audience.