Obviously this is not scientific, it doesnt match exactly (due to the grain I think), but it shows how a simple levels transformation could be responsible for the TB saber looking that way. Its likely the super bright, high saturation lightsaber would have been simply clipped off through the telecine process.
Right, but you’ve brightened the entire background to get there. The point is this brightness difference is limited only to the lightsaber optical element - thus it’s from a 2nd composite, one made for telecine. There are two versions of the Jabba shot, and two versions of the Greedo shot (both with and without subtitles) so why shouldn’t there be two versions of this shot also?
I find this a lot more likely than the shots being completely rerendered for the TV release.
It wouldn’t have taken much effort, and would have been done early on probably before the theatrical o-neg was completed. Keep in mind that directors would often shoot replacement shots for television, so why wouldn’t they do it for composites too? IIRC there’s a shot in “Scream 2” that the MPAA wanted cut from the movie (the scene where Phil is stabbed in the head), but the producers or Wes told them they only had the one version of the shot so they let them keep it and got an R-rating anyway. But, really they had thought ahead and shot a TV safe replacement for the shot.