corellian77 said:

Having the technology (not to mention the origin) surrounding the space jockey explained ruins that sense of mystery and wonder which Alien so expertly created.

I agree, that mystery is one of the major reasons the original Alien film is so powerful, explain this and the magic is broken. This is sacred ground for many of us how silly that may sound, but sooner or later Hollywood cannot resist dickin' around with these things that you love, it's inevitable, it happens with everything you thought was sacred, you just need to ignore the new material.