It should have been there in the first place but everyone fought George on the idea that it would be too confusing. It was an idea to directly link to the cliffhanger serials of the past-and make it as if you wandered into an ongoing story much as kids used to if they hadn’t seen the previously screened chapters. So in '81 George was able to put it on there much like the '78 THX reissue he got to tweak the edit a tad.

I used to say ANH as a quick reference but the original film should be referred to as Star Wars for historical accuracy and as the original theatrical version. So for quite a number of years now I switched to just abbreviating as SW. Saying ANH should refer to anything 1981 and after.