The crux of it for me is this:
Would anyone really want the effects of Ray Harryhausen "cleaned up"?
No.
As has been said they were of their time and representative of a development in cinema and not only that,in the case of Star Wars,but of a seminal leap forward in the advancement of effects technology.They should be kept exactly the way they were in the same way that I would hope no-one would want to tamper with the equally seminal work of a genius like Harryhausen.Do we need to add CG elements to Jason and The Argonaust?No we bloody well do not so let us treat the effects and flaws in Star Wars with the same respect.
And I dont buy all this shit about the garbage mattes.You know the people who complain about that and about noticing it now should take this into account.When I was a kid I didn't notice them and I have noticed that my sons don't bother about them either-all they see are TIE fighters and X-Wings and my son was open-mouthed with how cool the skeleton fight in Argonauts was.Perhaps those looking at these films now and moaning about garbage mattes could try looking at them that way?
You might even enjoy the films.Stranger things have been known to happen,lol.