Gaffer Tape said: I'd just hate for this new version to become the default TNG. It's quite a conundrum.

It is a conundrum. I suppose it would be possible for Paramount to include 480i (SD) encodings from the original masters, on the Blu-rays. That way the original effects would be preserved, there would be no jump in quality during the episodes, and at that resolution they would not take up much space on BD-50s, which are rarely filled to the brim anyway. Whether the studio would go to the trouble of doing this, I don't know, but it's a potential solution.