Here's yet another quote that pretty much sums up my point of view on this issue:

Quote
Originally posted by Makabe on the Official StarWars Forums:

Let's be honest here. The Special Editions were not an attempt to make the old movies more like he originally wanted them. The way he originally wanted them was the way they originally were. He did not originally want Greedo to shoot first, he did not originally want that new musical number, he did not originally want Luke to scream when falling down the shaft, he did not originally want to show Vader flying back to his Star Destroyer, he did not originally want more celebration scenes at the end. This was Lucas changing his mind 20 years later, when he should have left well enough alone. Films are not a director's vision alone, they are the collaboration of hundreds of people. The Special Editions threw out the innovative techniques, and the work of the people involved originally, and replaced it with the work of computer geeks, disregarding the work they did and the experience of his original audience.