I mean, I know that for me AOTC was the turning point. I was way too tolerant of the SE back in the old days and while TPM was a disappointment it had its good points, but AOTC had no merits whatosever and was for me the sign that told me Star Wars was fucked (though I should have figured that out in 97 with Han shooting second and Roger Rabbit Jabba).

This was my view of it exactly, too. I actually really liked the special editions when they first came out--they were the same movies, just a bit different. I liked Phantom Menace too; the thrill of "new Star Wars" kept me from seeing how silly it actually was. But when Episode 2 came around and so obviously chugged it, I realised something was really wrong. Even then I still had hopes of Episode 3 turning it around, and I sort of enjoyed that at first (mainly because of Ian McDiarmid) before getting tired of it. Then I saw the 2004 dvd's and the suckiness of those--particularly the dreadful sound mix for ANH--finally convinced me it had all gone to crappe. At that point I revisited the original versions for the first time in several years, and was struck anew by how infinitely superior they were, and how they never needed to be changed in the first place. I've only ever watched them since.

I agree that the SE's really did reset it all under everyone's noses. As such I take a nihilistic view and negate their very existence from my reckoning, and that of everything that follows their view of things.