Darth Id said:
Thank you.
Definitely not a smoking gun, but might deserve to be quoted in an endnote?
I think a big question that would have been raised if the SE had kept the line intact is: does Red Leader know that 'Father Skywalker' turned into the dreaded Darth Vader? And if not, why not (and what would he have thought happened to his former friend)? And if he DID know, might he not be suspicious of Luke, or maybe think fit to mention it? ("'Skywalker!?' Dude, bummer about the evil pops, bro.")
I think the proper route would have been to...not monkey with the damn movie in the first place. But that's just me.
I had similar doubts about Anakin's official fate. Not just about what was planned back in 77 but also with what's been shown in the CW series, and how would it influence future radical edits of the OT. If officially Anakin never fell to be a Sith and he died as a Jedi, being also the last great star of the Republic, he should have been quite a referent for the Rebels wouldn't he?