It (film) has a look to it that digital will never give you.
I think analog video has a more natural look than and actually looks closer to film than digital, especially in focus and depth. Sure a $1,000 and up digital video camera won't look bad but even those and HD can have smearing, video noise, pixelization and other fun digital artifacting. The consumer level digital camcorders being sold today are horrible. The consumer level Hi8's that were sold 10 years ago have such better quality. As I ranted on in my post about slow motion vegas problems, my 8mm from '97 has color vibrancy and accuracy about the same as a really good 3ccd camera.
As for the topic about preserving an actual print, I know it's a long shot but I think it is the only chance we have. The X0 team will squeeze the best possible transfer out of laserdisc with most accurate color and contrast ever which will compete with the official release. What happens after that is unknown. It's a safe bet Lucas is only doing because of the bootlegs and lost revenue. We have forced him to give in a little bit and release something slightly better than what we already have. (X0 is still in progress) The only way I think he will cave completely is if we can best the official release. Beyond the X0 project, the only fan preservation that could be better would be from a film print. If someone by, hook or by crook, managed to get a film scan and quietly distribute it without any imperial entanglements, Lucas would be forced to give in.