the smashed dividing line you talk about has been a point of contention over the SE's, I also think. Lucas really does live in his own little world and simply doesn't acknowledge that people actually don't want to sit through very obviously pandering updates. Yea, back in '97 I don't think I thought of the updates as anything more than cool things to do now that the movies are back on the big screen. Nevertheless, there was always that part of my brain that clearly recognized "this is from 1977, that is from 1997." Then I found out they were cut into the actual o-neg. Hypocrisy is the only word my vocabulary can muster when he 1) talks about his kids not growing up to enjoy the movies he grew up with, 2) alters the o-negs of three movies simply because he's now the one with legal control and finally 3) cranks out 4:3, borderline unwatchable transfers of 3 of the greatest movies ever made and then makes commercials with parents talking about how their kids can see what they grew up with as if he's doing us some sort of favor. And this was taken from the depths of the Lucasfilm archives?
Another thing about the dividing line is that Lucas isn't revising history to make it seem like all six movies were made concurrently with one another. There's a real sense of history in the '04 discs which is why I'm all the more frustrated with it. Lucas is never getting around the fact that these were first released in '77-'85 anyway unless he just totally remakes it from scratch as you mentioned. That's why he doesn't really have a leg to stand on in regards to the originals "not existing." This is why I can't see any reason for him just not remastering the originals and getting it over with. What really is he afraid of? That if people can watch the originals in the same quality as the SE that they won't watch the SE anymore? I sure as hell don't see why some people would stop watching the SE, they seem to prefer it to the originals (don't ask me why). No, I think Lucas is safe in that respect, but he does still owe it to the fans to stop all of this nonsense. And to the people who say "Lucas owes you nothing" I can't help but get the impression that you think of yourselves as his bodyguards or something. That if you don't go along with what he thinks then you are automatically wrong. Arguing that Lucas doesn't owe the OOT fans anything implies that he does owe the SE fans something.