Turns out the problem with washed out colors, and a flat image is at least partly caused by the HDR settings on the display device. HDR can look radically different from one device to the other (there are no real standards for HDR), and after optimizing my TV settings, I can now report, that at least the 4K HDR transfer of the OT looks quite stunning, with great detail and color, and is actually suprisingly faithful to the 1997 SE prints. Just to get an idea of what the 4K color grading looks like with these optimized HDR settings, here are a few photos I made of my screen (the image is less contrasty and saturated in reality, but so are photos of a 35mm screening, so you’ll get the idea):
