I appreciate your interest in lumping all "conspiracy theorists" together so you can ridicule them more easily, but the truth is some of us may in fact have some expertise to bring to bear on these issues. If you'd asked that theoretical question about having all scenes grained or not, I would've answered, "I don't know," because I don't. I can only speculate - albeit intelligently - about the reasons why LFL would be interested in devaluing the product. It is a fact that they are doing so, by the way, not conjecture. But one doesn't disprove - or prove for that matter - the other. The images are degraded. That is a fact. Whether intentional or not, is another issue. Personally, I believe the DVD's are intentionally presented as inferior, because Lucasfilm told me they were, and have been proving it on their site, and I can see it . Plus, I can compare to earlier transfers which are largely superior. Plus, I've seen high res clean source material, and been told it doesn't exist. My initial post stated I believe grain has been added - that I would bet money on it. I didn't say I was 1000% sure; I couldn't be. But my position stands, and I'd still bet money on it. I've tried to illustrate a bit, and explain a bit more; sadly having to trump my credentials out along the way somewhat, but I suppose that's to be expected...
In any case, the degradation of the imagery isn't an opinion, it's a quantifiable fact. How much of a grand conspiracy that represents depends on how much that sort of thing appeals to you, I guess. But I'm from the school of thought that says if the government killed Kennedy to turn on the war machine, it's not so much a conspiracy as a business plan. Different strokes, I guess. Anyway, the 2006 DVD's suck, and could've been a billion times better with almost zero effort, so perhaps you should turn your ire where it belongs. Hint: it isn't on me. And if you enjoy your substandard release, then that's awesome; you got what you deserved.
_Mike