Very true. I'm sure he didn't want to but he had to offer something to justify releasing them individually. Of course, Ward is probably the one who suggested finally putting out the Theatrical Versions...and I'd even go so far as to say Ward wanted them remastered for DVD. It's Lucas who put his foot down on that department. To him, the Special Editions are the main feature, period.
At the end of the day, Lucas should've stuck to his guns while he was in production of Episode III when he said he wanted to wait until after he was finished to deal with the Original Trilogy on DVD.