DrDre said:

The question of course is, whether the detail was actually visible in the 1977 prints. You can of course bring out more detail by altering the color palette, but that's essentially doing another SE.

I think both Harmy and I have the intention to try to match the colors of the original negative, working from reference prints or in my case a reference frame provided by Mike Verta. The results can be quite different, as is evident from the following comparison:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/139124

Which is closer to the colors of the actual negatives? I leave that to your expert opinions/tastes, although I'm aware Harmy's been at it a lot longer than I have...

While that doesn't look bad, I will caution that the guys in the extreme background are starting to tip toward looking like the legendary "Lobsterman" SE mess up. Color corrections always have these little give and takes (especially with a screwy source like the SW BDs), so it is really hard to know when to cut your losses. I've also been wanting to point out that in your examples, while brighter and maybe more natural of a palette overall, the white Stormtrooper armor is more often than not getting blown out, resulting in quite a bit less definition.