brimforge said:

thinking of the many versions of movies that are released nowadays it makes me wonder ... why couldn't there be a "theatre cut" of Star Wars ?

WB, Sony and co throw thousands of copies out, so it must be a big market for every movie edition - it was just Lucas who didn't care anymore

On the contrary, Lucas cares... he cares too much. But it's not US he cares about. It's about preserving his precious "true vision". Most studios would leap at the chance to give us a set with both the OUT and the SE, knowing fans of either would buy it, but not George. No, we need to erase the OUT from existence (like Marty McFly's brother).

I've heard him claim that the OUT was destroyed because he had to cut the original negatives apart to create the SE. I also recall reading (can't remember the source) that Disney bought the rights to the ST and all the merchandising for the franchise, but George maintained the rights to the currently completed films. Unfortunately (and just to keep this on topic), this will mean the source material for fan editors and preservationists will continue to be difficult thanks to George's ego.