Litter:
1. Luke's lightsabre - yeah, it does look pretty crappy, but it's a lot of work and if I change it in that shot, I'd have a hard time excusing myself from changing it in every other shot. I might go back and tweak the colours (that screenshot you posted still looks a bit green), but the colours are so off anyway there doesn't seem to be much point.
2. I can sort of see your point, but I'm not convinced the film's been sped up. I think it's just a couple of smokey flashes coupled with some whippy camera work.
3. Unfortunately the only thing I could replace it with (currently) would be a Laserdisc capture, and I decided at the start that I wouldn't use any lower-quality elements (the only exception will be Sebastian Shaw at the end of RoTJ). Perhaps when the new DVDs come out I'll take another look.
DE