It was the final release of the OOT on home media, up until they were released again in 2006. The GOUT was insulting, but it was a release of the unaltered films on DVD. Had he still stood by his belief that the original films should never be seen ever again and would eventually deteriorate with the VHS tapes, then he would not have released the GOUT.
I still believe he meant it in 1995, regardless of the fact that the GOUT ended up happening. That was a combination of pretending to cave to the demand for it and actually sabotaging perception of the quality of the OOT.
made sense given that if a 4K restoration of the SE would require reconstructing or redoing the CGI, and that maybe if they made a new version they’d take advantage of that opportunity to release a set including multiple versions of the films.
Agreed. There’s no straight forward path at all, given that a 4K 1997 edition would be seen as a strange move. So anything or everything are still potential outcomes as far as I’m concerned. But as far as Landis or other specific ‘leaks’, I doubt there’s any real information out there.