Well, I kind of softened up on the issue over the years - erasing history is wrong, sure, but thanks to the frustrated fans here taking matters in their own hands, we’re closer than ever to having those versions in 4K77 and 4K83 and hopefully soon 4K80. These preserve the films the way people saw them in theaters back then, so we, here on this, site got frustrated and angry and that drove us to make sure history won’t be erased for those who care. Honestly, I ,of course, hope the originals do get an official release one day but as long as the fan versions are available and Disney doesn’t push against them being freely available to those who want them, I’m happy.

Sure, the general public won’t get to see fan preservations, but the general public doesn’t really care either way, since to them it’s just a movie - they don’t think about film history and how the films were made and so they will remain ignorant - but the general public is totally ignorant of much more important things in history and elsewhere. And the people who do care can get them and research them for historical reasons very easily, thanks to this site.

So, at this point, to me, it is mostly about “I want the version I like”. The main reason I like Star Wars any more is the technical stuff - marveling at how they were able to achieve those shots with the technology at the time, so the altered version are completely uninteresting to me. So for my personal enjoyment, I want a good looking, clean release of the original versions but it’s not really about preserving history any more, it’s about wanting the version I like.

EDIT: This will all actually only be true once 4K80 is out - right now, the 35mm versions of Empire are kind of lacking, though again, for historical research purposes, they’re kind of ok too.