It certainly looks like a vertical blur has been applied to the official DVD; there is a noticeable loss of vertical detail when compared with the laserdiscs (both the DC and the PAL laserdiscs). I don't know why this might be the case, perhaps it was done to reduce the effect of IVTC artefacts (e.g. see here)?

I think the DVD could do with some processing to remove video noise/grain, and because it has superior horizontal detail/sharpness the results should look better than any laserdisc transfer, despite the vertical blurring.

That said, there are some scenes in the PAL laserdiscs that are cleaner than the DC and the official DVD - fewer dirt spots/scratches on the print. (I'm thinking of the "flyover" shot as one example.)