ROTJ was where it all started, and that was his first full movie as CEO, not the cutting edge director from the 70's. Once Lucas became a businessman, he was all about business, and not about fullfulling artistic vision of making a the best movie he can, and not worrying about the monetary ramifications.
That is why he is so wishy washy today, cause everything is about money. If he was so steadfast about the O-OT dying a slow death, then why release it at all? Because of $$$$$$$$$$.
The worst thing to happen to Star Wars in 1977, and then ESB in 1980 was they became so big, that they created this monster we have to deal with at the present time. If Star Wars stayed popular like Star Trek as just a diehard niche audience, Lucas wouldn't have Skywalker Ranch, he wouldn't be this autonomous ruler of all his movies by owning 100% of them, and he would have never catered to kids as much with Ewoks in Jar Jar, cause he wouldn't be so worried about the merchandising and the bottom line.
Success was a double edged sword, we got classics like SW & ESB that are still great today, but then we get duds like ROTJ, The SE, and the PT, and more TV show crap on the way, which takes no chances, but is just another ploy to make more money to feed Lucas's empire. We created the monster, now we are paying for it.