Trooperman said:
This is why I believe the true version of a film SHOULD be the 4th generation theatrical print, because that is the version everybody saw
Not always. You have some cases like the opening roadshow version of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, which were all 70mm blow ups right from the negative, which caused major headaches years later for that restoration. Star Wars also had prints made right off the negative. Also there's a recent interview with Howard Kazanjian where he mentions that the opening night JEDI in hollywood was a 70mm blowup right off the negative. It happened a lot, they were pretty reckless with that stuff.