Just watched the EE again last week with the missus, who's since been watching all the appendices as well. I really didn't care for Fellowship in the theatre as I felt it was chopped up to a nauseating level (literally, in my case, the editing actually made me nauseous). Not having the EE to compare it to, I couldn't put my finger on it, but I remember saying that it felt like it had been edited with a meat cleaver.

I got the EE of FOTR for Christmas the following year and THAT is when I fell in love with the LOTR films. Aside from the mumbling and whispering, it was a perfect film. The EE of TTT was even better the next year. The Theatrical ROTK was the only one I enjoyed on its own. The EE restored so much that was still needed, but it also added back a couple of things that actually hurt the movie. On the whole it's still vastly superior. My only beef with the EE of ROTK is that we shouldn't have seen the the army of the dead (I can't recall their proper Tolkien name at the moment) agree to fight and take over the mercenary ships. That really destroyed the surprise appearance of Aragorn and the army when the ships arrived at Minas Tirith. I've even considered my own EE to put this back the way it was in the theatrical version. But all the rest is awesome in my eyes. The EE is the only way to watch the trilogy for me, because it is clear it was intended to be seen this way by the filmmakers.