It's funny, when I see '97 Jabba the nostalgia of seeing Star Wars for the first time allows me to see past its gaping flaws. When I was seven, CGI Jabba was real, dammit. When I look at the '04 version I just see a digital effect, albeit a much improved one.
(And '04 Jabba is actually a damn good effect, just visually inconsistent with everything else in that movie.)