Is it just me or did a lot of fans turn against the unaltered versions once the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney was announced? Before the sale to Disney, I always heard that Lucas was evil incarnate and that the Special Editions are unwatchable, but the day that the sale to Disney was announced, I started hearing “releasing the unaltered versions would result in the discontinuation of the Special Editions” or “releasing the unaltered versions would go against the canon”.
Perhaps it’s just more of the PT fans growing up and becoming a louder subset. If all you ever seen is the SE and all you know about the OOT is that Lucas considers them unfinished (and you don’t care about film history), why would you want the OOT to be released?