Darth Lars said:

Several good reasons for removing the scene have already been mentioned above. Here are a few more:

This scene has become the first time that we see the Millenium Falcon. It ruins the "What a piece of junk" scene where the Falcon is revealed for the first time to Luke.

I never thought of it that way. Great point! Granted, perhaps the intro to the Falcon was created more through the music than through the dialogue of Luke and Han. Maybe if the music was different, then the Falcon wouldn't have been set up as important as we see it now. But that is all speculation. I love the scene as it ended up in the final cut. At least before the Special Edition.