Erikstormtrooper said:

I think it goes without saying (or at least I thought it did), that the more popular a movie is, the more uproar everyone will make when it is "disappeared".

Since ST:TMP has not fared well over time, I can see how the Director's Cut sort of got a big "meh".

Plus, it's not like the powers that be ever said the original ST:TMP would NEVER released and in fact had been PURPOSEFULLY DESTROYED.

Unfortunately----the popularity of a film and the degradation of the original negative that ensues because the film is popular-------are inextricably linked.

And this is where Lucas deserves praise.

All the original elements that comprised the hundreds of special effects that feature throughout the original cut of Star Wars were saved by Lucas----which allows him to restore those frames if needed(the seeker ball training scene onboard the falcon being one example).

I am not sure other big budget /effects heavy films from the 70's/early 80's have had their composite elements preserved as meticulously as Star Wars.

It is probably one of the reasons why films such as Close Encounters and Superman have only been subjected to 2k scans---any higher scans(4K) would only expose the limitations of the optical compositing.------and it probably also explains why Lucas thinks that those effects don't hold up(he is on record as not being happy with the effects as far back as the summer of 1977.)