The first story on your "news" link (about the use of an SE shot to illustrate an example of the innovations made in SW in 1977), reminded me of something that I heard on the radio about 2 years ago.
It was on the Mike O'Meara show. They were discussing how they had watched all 6 shows of the trilogy, and how the older effects didn't measure up to the new effects. And the example they used of a bad effect in the original 1977 trilogy was -- the Jabba scene in ANH!!!!!