How anybody is expected to believe that, I have no idea. As if, as if the material not used for the Special Editions wasn't preserved after the efforts they went to to clean up those very prints in order to then produce the Special Editions.
That's why the bullshit excuses about why the appalling transfers of the Theatrical Editions on DVD are so aggravating - "we really struggled to find prints that were up to the job". Er, right.