To compare such changes to the monstronsity that is the SE's is just flat-out ludicrous.
I take it you are referring to the SE changes and not the fact it was cleaned up and sharpened? I think its admirable that someone is willing to go through it all frame by frame and clean it up a la lowry has done. If I was still single, then yeah, I'd probably invest the time and do that myself, however, wife politics precludes that for me.
with that in mind, the more I look at this as a project. the more I am leaning towards the following.
keep my NTSC's as they are, they are after all the original film and just finish a slight color correction and sharpen and remove jaggies.
then with PAL DVD's de SE the DVD so that I have a version that is really sharp but re color correct it from the abortion that was lucasfilms judgement. somehow I might be able to get 5.1 sound + PCM track + standard stereo and then put all that on a dual layer disc with moving menus etc.