We saw in ANH that the imperials had plenty of authority on Tatooine. They acted like they owned the place. The imperial reach certainly extended there (and to space nearby -as in the Tantive IV battle). I think Lucas was thinking of them as being under the empire when he did the SE.

It's the SE I'm arguing against. The Empire didn't have "plenty of authority" there. They had to have informants there for local intelligence. They were some sort of foreign detachment (I'm not good with military type language) they came from the star destroyer and they certainly didn't have any troops already based there.

They had lots of fire power and the fear of the Empire backing them, no one was going to fuck with them. Acting like owning the place and actually owning the place are two different things.

So I don't really see how things changed come ROTJ.