As for removing the 3:2 pulldown (i.e. Inverse telecine or IVTC) it was the first thing that was done to bring it back to the original 24 progressive frames. It was a bitch too, as there are errors on the laserdisc in some scenes where the 3:2 gets out of whack, so has to be manually adjusted.
We haven't even *looked* at the audio side of things at the moment, so no comments there.
As for the NTSC version having more detail, and us 'conquering' NTSC and PAL land, well, neither is strictly true. They are just different beasts, and each will have its advantages and disadvantages.
I think some scenes will look subjectively better on a PAL transfer if the person doing it has done all of their homework and has stabilised the footage, cleaned up the frame, done the colour correction right, (say using something like Final cut pro that allows you to do secondaries), and gets the noise reduction/sharpening just right. You do lose more detail to noise in the PAL transfer than the NTSC, but in some scenes the overall detail can be higher on the PAL transfer, in others it isn't.
But anyway they will be different in that the PAL scene will be missing some of the picture, and will run at a different frame rate with the corresponding problem of everyone speaking as if they have had a very mild dose of Helium.
I'd prefer to watch a well done PAL transfer in a PAL country, but most standard DVD players in the states won't play a PAL disc, so if you are in NTSC land, you would probably want to watch an NTSC transfer.
If you are a 'sound' purist, then you will want an NTSC transfer also.
As for the black levels, I think there is a lot of confusion there, and having the black level elevated to grey does not necessarily 'preserve' the 'luminace range' of the laserdiscs. In fact, if there is no 'true black' in your transfer, then you are reducing the 'luminance range' as you called it.
You have to be careful with NTSC not to end up with a doble pedestal, i.e. that if your Source is IRE 7.5 for black, and you don't do your mastering right, when you stick it in a US DVD player, it will apply the uplift to 7.5 IRE again! This leaves you with very grey blacks, and a *reduced* luminance range.
I've measure the black bars on the US definitive edition, and they are (damn close to) 7.5IRE, which means they should be BLACK when played back on an American laserdisc player on an American TV set. Which also means on any transfer they should be black when played back thorugh an Amercian DVD player on an American TV set. Anyhting else means you aren't getting the full range, or a correct looking picture. So in short we will be doing it right, if it should be black, it will be black.