I tend to think of it that way, yes. The unaltered OT has no distinct canon status that sets it apart, at least not officially, but I tend to think of it as existing in its own canon “bubble” of sorts. A bubble where maybe the events of the prequel trilogy did take place, but in a slightly different way than the prequels we got.

Officially, it may just be considered a non-canon “obsolete” version of the trilogy, but we certainly don’t have to see it that way. For the sake of simplicity, present and future content will always be created with the Special Editions in mind as canon (though Han shooting first at the end of Solo may have muddied the waters a bit), but in the end, it’s all just a matter of preference.