It's not like he set out to rid the earth of the original version. He says that when he went to restore SW for the 20th anneversary, the negatives and prints had deteriorated far more than they were expecting them to. If he didn't restore the films when he did, we wouldn't even have the SE versions today.
He chose to update the films to make them more like he was hoping they had turned out, and in the process, he permanantly altered the negative. Now the only negative he has is the special edition.
I am not too sure about the details of all those other sets you mention that you feel get far better treatment, but I bet they started from a fairly in tact negative. I don't think they spent nearly as much to make new anamorphic transfers as Lucas did to create the SE version. I know it's the SE, and some of you see that as an entirely different set of films (for valid reason), but it's not Like Lucas was just pissing on us. He reinvested a ton of time and money to "maintain" SW for the next generation.
Now for him to make an anamorphic transfer of the O-OT, he would have to clean up a PRINT, not a negative, and not only that, all the prints that exist today have serious issues that would have to be meticulously straingtended out, just to get back to the original picture quality.
From what I understand, that's possible, but it won't be cheap.
As far as "respect" for us, I think he shows the people who don't like his new stuff a whole lot more respect than he gets in return. He always talks about how the fans who disagree with his artistic taste know how to think out of the box, and are very creative in their own right. He has even apologised for not making the original versions available. He didn't rectify it, but he did say he was sorry, even if he still wanted to do things his way.
Now we have this September release, which may not be the treatement we were all hoping for, but it's a step in the right direction I think.