It's not entirely analogous, but to say it's nothing like it is silly. That is, unless I've misunderstood the entire purpose of this site for the past seven years. Isn't the point that the originals are not readily available, that they only exist in either unofficial fan preservations or as out-of-print rarities while a new version takes its official place? That history is being buried and rewritten? The only difference I see is that TNG at least got to a home video video generation that could fully take advantage of what it was originally shown to be before it was knocked off, while sheer timing prevented Star Wars from achieving that same end.

Allow me to put it another way: let's say the Special Editions did not happen until now. That the original versions were put out on this year's Blu-ray set, and just now George Lucase made the announcement that he would be updating the special effects, and that he would never again be releasing the originals. Sure, the fact that it's on Blu-ray would be great, would make it easy for high quality fan copies (or at least in our present perspective), but you're telling me that no one would be upset that Lucas was still trying to bury the original versions, regardless of when it happened to take place? The law of diminishing returns makes it less and less likely, but couldn't you imagine someone saying, fifteen years down the line, "The Blu-rays release don't look like Star Wars looked in 1977, not compared to the home video format we use now!"

Then again, this is entirely predicated on my fear that there won't be seamless branching. If there is, then, you're right. This is nothing like Star Wars. But if there isn't, then the only real difference I see is, "I happen to approve of this change, so it's okay, but I don't approve of this change, so it's not okay."