Damn, why didn't GL just do a friggin seamless branching of the O-OT and the SE?
Because it's pretty much damn near impossible on the authoring level. The amount of small changes to almost every frame would make swapping back and forth along the line ridiculous. You couldn't author it. The alternate cuts of the Alien films are a LOT less intensive in that manner. Even with the Alien 3 Special Edition. But with the Special Editions of Star Wars? Couldn't do it. Too much is altered for anyone to be able to author a seamlessly branched DVD of the two versions. It'd simply be more cost and time effective to release a separate version.