Wouldn't be that hard to ask someone at Lucasfilm whether such a scene was planned or shot. There's a lot of stuff from the cutting room floor we didn't even get to see until the digital versions of the Rinzler books came out.

Bantha Tracks was the official newsletter of the original Star Wars fan club run by Lucasfilm, not a third party, so that they would print misinformation makes no sense to me. Star Wars Poster Monthly made up a lot of in universe background stuff that probably wasn't scrutinized closely in the early days though.