I think whats slowly happening is that we have a generation of kids who have grown up with the 97 and later versions and that's "their version" meaning the one they have attachment too. They might have heard of the OOT or maybe downloaded a copy and decided that the SE had more stuff in it etc.

Sometimes on the forum I'll see posts from people who saw the special editions first but ended up liking the OOT better which is really refreshing. Technically the originals have a more realistic feel to them (thanks to no cg) so they just work better. However most of the casual fans would never think about this and those raised on the SE will want their Rontos.

I think someone really needs to do a definitive interview with George on this whole subject. Why when it comes to these particular films he doesn't believe in a preservation of any kind of the original releases? Especially of the amazing original effects work? Maybe theres something personal there we don't know about.