But even within those 3 short years from 1977-81---- was there anything like the vitriolic hate towards Coppola like there is towards Lucas for the re-edit of their respective movies----I don't think so.
By your own admission, the number of people who owned VHS players in 1981 was miniscule. Thus, this is a red herring.
Again, the two situations aren't even remotely comparable. Why are you torturing logic and reason so in order to force one?