I have a somewhat unique perspective since I was in the original Star Wars generation, but never got to see the films in the theaters during the original run. But I did notice the garbage mattes on the TIE Fighters when I picked up the widescreen "Faces" set on VHS. I had the pan & scan Lucas signature set prior to that, but can't recall if I spotted the garbage mattes on that or not. A lot of it had to do with how the brightness on your TV set was adjusted.