It happens everywhere. It is said by many that Coppola had to be heavily coerced into putting over an hour back into The Godfather and that the ending was crafted by a studio editor in the nick of time.

I posted in the SE comparison thread about the cockpit croppings. I think on ESB they decided to make things look a bit less hokey and fake-by making the cockpit more crowded/lived in/battered. But the crew was a very good one who knew just how to frame shots so that there is enough information in the composition in order to tell the story. The 04 adheres to the idea that "tighter=better or more intense". This is not the case, and it does nothing to the cockpit scenes except screw with the original cinematographer's composition. If you weren't there that day, composing the shot, why are you messing with the framing?