Hope this puts it all to rest.
It doesn't & shouldn't. Scott's review on Amazon does tell me one thing. He did indeed see the same or very similar cut of Empire that I did. His detail is too precise to have not to have seen it & be making up the cuts in question.
I wish you could get over this false childhood memory issue. I don't have this problem & never did. I'm not a space cadet. I seen many films that have had this same type of thing happen with them before & after within this same period. Others, including myself did notice cuts to many films & in most cases they did turn up over time. Why would Empire be any different than say Star Trek 2 or any other film that I and many others have claimed to have seen additional scenes in over the years? My 9 year old brain was working just fine at the time.
Once again, I am not your typical science fiction fan. I am a very casual fan compared to many. I never have collected any Star Wars products other than the actual films. I had exactly 2 posters and model X-Wing from the original film from a Uncle that thought it would be cool gift. These products where given to me as a present in Christmas 1979. These novelty products are just not interesting to me and I have never bothered with them at all. Nor have I knew anybody that did when I was a kid. I understand it is much more common now, but back then in Edmonton that really just wasn't many kids bag that I knew. Including space film magazines, comics, bubble gum cards, story/novels, LP records, radio shows and other specials some have seen on television etc. wasn't interested, didn't know or care. I did watch the Empire of Dreams DVD and the Deleted Magic on youtube. That's it. So you could rule out the influence of novelty products on my memory.
One could easily get the idea that during the printing of the film they were rushed to point of somebody somewhere screwing up and/or somebody did indeed send out a small number of advance copies at some point aside from the rest of the batch. There is obviously a not talked about test, advance or pre-screen print that went out to at least two theatres. One in Edmonton & maybe one in Chicago if that is where the kid saw the film.