The first Star Wars movie - went for several revisions and editing- which was done by a team of editors led by Lucas' ex-wife - they even won an Academy Award for their work. In the 1997 release, Lucas took back all the crap they cut out - they re-inserted it back instead- and wah-lah! you see why they won the award. The scenes the editing cut out - was CRAP- poor acting or directing.
The same also goes for Empire... however by the time of Jedi, Lucas' power had grown so big and his bankroll so huge- that he could do whatever he damn well pleased- hence we see the Ewok-cong army.
It is unfortunate that Lucas has chosen this path. The Star Wars series could have gone down as one of the greatest space operas of all time. It had hopes of Wagnerian proportions. But now it seems a movie catered to 10 year old kids- who frankly aren't really interested in tragedies- (classical sense).
Its not just the story- its the way he directed the movie- he's an average director- even he admits it himself in the 1970s. But with so much cash and so much hubris up his ass, he's forgotten his own limitations.
I would feel sorry if Lucas came out with an altered version of the original series... but now... I couldn't really care less. Lucas has gone way overboard and thinks too much of himself these days it seems. So I'll burn my VCR copies into CDs- and buy pirate copies of the first trilogy.