That does seem all too ridiculous.
But my other question on THAT would be, in order for him to edit and add in new FX to old scenes, ( ex. Han/Greedo scene) he would have had to scan that footage into a computer to manipulate it as he did.
So at SOME point, even if he did take physical prints of the doctored scenes and splice them physically right into the restored negative, the original print negatives existed in the digital realm before being SE'inized.
Right?