What we see on screen in the Special edition sequence are ROTJ stormtroopers with sandtrooper bits added. The helmets are slightly squashed, same as the ROTJ ones and they have the solid black mouth.
Whelp, I guess I’m never unseeing that!
Anyway, I’m glad things are coming along well and I’m pleased that the overall pace of the movie is more akin to the OOT. Hal’s method of shortening the “Look sir, droids!” scene has long been a favorite change of mine and I’m glad you’re doing something similar (along with fewer CGI dewbacks/riders - even the classic Battlefront games had better character models for stormtroopers).
The Topaz AI stuff sounds like an excellent method to ameliorate the grain issues present in the HD and 4K masters of the movies, while also bringing the HD branch up to snuff in 1080p.