If Lucas had retired in 1977, there's no guarantee he wouldn't be doing the exact same thing now with regards to suppressing the originals. In fact, I think a main part of that reason is because he hasn't been able to move beyond Star Wars, it's become his whole existance and so he obsesses over perfecting in his 60s a film he made in his 30s. Retiring in 1977 might have just exaggerated this. All he would have had is THX, Graffiti and Star Wars and he'd probably have tweaked all three to even greater levels than their respective Special Editions currently exist as.

The cure is really the scenario where Lucas followed through on his promise to make other kinds of films. When he started saying that again in 2005 I thought maybe he was serious this time and it would be the antidote to the Star Wars Spell that has enslaved him, but sadly he was too afraid to try it. It's too bad, because I think Lucas' real talents don't get seen very often, like Coppola said "Star Wars robbed America of one of its most challenging filmmakers." I think the current loss of the Star Wars That Once Was is equally sad as loss of the George Lucas That Never Was.