The acquisition of Fox absolutely makes a difference. It wasn’t released before because Lucas was in charge and didn’t want to.

Disney has no such creative qualms. They care primarily about the bottom line.

Releasing any restoration would be an enormous money maker, and Fox owning distribution rights means that Disney would only get a small percentage of those potential profits.

Fox no longer being an issue means that Disney can take full advantage of the guaranteed money without having to share profits. There is MUCH more incentive to do so with the Fox acquisition.

It wasn’t that Fox didn’t want to release it and that was stopping Disney. It’s that Disney didn’t want another company taking so much potential profit.