Without defending compression, I still think people should realize that Star Wars is much softer than images we're used to today, and was NOT particularly sharp even by 1977 standards. They shot the film on Bausch & Lomb lenses which were not even top tier then, and there's no getting around that. The Lowry restoration was highly sharpened. You will never find a print approaching that level of sharpness, and that includes Tech prints, which are only 1 step from the original negative (O-Neg>Dye Master>Print). Even at 4K, when the grain becomes the size of nail heads and is razor sharp, the film is just softer than we're used to. What's interesting is that when you project it, it never feels soft. In fact, it "feels" sharper than scrutiny of any individual frame would suggest.
_Mike