bkev said:

^But an LD image isn't quite as clear, so you wouldn't see the aliasing as much thanks to it being a bit blurry. Also, if there really is a vertical blur, does that mean that the release was modified and not sent out just as-is straight rip? Interesting... shame they couldn't have been assed to do any more.

The more I think about it, I seem to remember reading that the Lucasfilm marketing team showed a "before and after" when they were promoting the GOUT DVDs at one of the home video conventions. Maybe they did do some minor cleaning (instead of leaving well enough alone).