Lucasfilm and Disney have to know how many people are at the very least interested
Yeah this shows them. The wider fandom barely cares at all and the general audience cares even less.
The wider fandom aren’t activists, but they do care. They’re not hardliners like us and don’t campaign for the OOT’s release or contribute to restoration projects, but they would probably be interested in it were an official release to happen, and I’d bet most Star Wars fans at least prefer the unaltered movies. Although it’s probably a lot more even for the general fandom than people like us.
Considering how genuinely common it’s become fans to either have Harmy’s Despecialized Edition or unaltered VHSs, though, I do absolutely believe that most of the fandom would be interested in an official unaltered release. Especially because there’s a lot of people who would like to see the unaltered movies but are put off by downloading a movie over the internet, or the roundabout way you have to get it if you aren’t going on a public torrent tracker.
Disney/LFL must know that at least it’s a large untapped market. At this point I bet the reason it hasn’t been released is because Lucas still has final cut privileges, or they have some sort of agreement with him. I wish they’d just come out and say that though instead of keeping quiet about it. Maybe they’re just trying to have their cake and eat it too by releasing the 4K versions and then the unaltered versions. But that’s beyond wishful thinking.