In the absence of a definitive "this is how it's definitely supposed to look" source to compare it to, I would think the source that provides the most detail would be preferable. In that case, wouldn't a release that crushes blacks and/or blows out whites to the point of losing detail in those areas be undesirable?

And I'm not talking about a movie that came out two months ago with crushed blacks and blown-out whites, since that's likely a creative decision. I'm talking about a movie that's been out for years in many different forms, and then suddenly a new version comes out that has less detail than any version seen before due to crushed blacks/blown-out whites.

In that scenario, I honestly don't understand how the version with less detail can be defended in any way, even without an objective reference to compare it to.