If you're referring to the SE DVDs then your complaints are even more misplaced, I feel. Empire Strikes Back is probably one of the most beautifully rendered DVD's ever created. Maybe you're so used to actual over-processed video via the LD's that when you see something that VERY CLOSELY approximates the film presentations of Star Wars and Empire, it looks too clean for you? I dunno.

That's not taking into account the cgi updates and such, of course.

And Lucasfilm's cutting edge reputation has always come with innovation WITHIN the current generation. Just because something is new doesn't mean they utterly abandon the not-so-new. LFL was putting out trilogy VHS combos up until 2002, well into DVD's rapid upswing. This early in the game there is no way Lucasfilm shuffles away from red-laser, the installed user base is way too huge and way too profitable for them to turn their backs on that sort of profit just to look "cutting edge"

And as we've already seen with this release, commitment to quality isn't as important as it once was at Lucasfilm, anyway.