Rebelscum, here's an image from an old "Definitive" capture that shows some bad rotting. I don't have anything anywhere near this bad on my new captures, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like:

laser rot

It's true you have to have three exact copies. Even if the color is off on one of them, it makes things look a little wierd and creates some crazy artifacting. In my tests yesterday, the three source captures I used were lined up perfectly and the filter worked like a charm. And you're right, the filter does do a little noise reduction, which is always a good thing.