I think it’s more he never wanted to spend the millions to restore them, given they’re not his preferred version.
I always assumed that Lucas’ “it-costs-too-much-money-to-restore-them” comment is/was just one of his numerous gaslighting arguments to support his OUT suppression attitude.
As for the new ALI restoration: The 50th anniversary of Star Wars is the last big chance for Disney to cash-in on the Original Trilogy. They have to do something with it and it looks like they are going to finally unlock the holy grail of Star Wars from Lucas’ ego-prison.