Mike isn’t trying to create a faithful duplicate of the original. He is trying to restore the best picture that he can from the sources he has. He is basically doing what Lucas should have done in 97. He is trying to achieve a 4k quality image and doing so from a 70’s print that wasn’t intended for such high definition viewing requires that he address things most of us can’t even see because they would show up as noticeable flaws at 4k. He has processed several sections known for their graininess to enhance the detail that lay hidden behind the effects layers. He removed a lot of the dirt in the Tatooine scenes (he basically noticed the same artificial dirt - not grain - that the Lowry people did when they helped clean up that scan). What Mike has been going for is Star Wars at its best in 4k. Most of what he did was simple restoration of the film at hand, but in many cases he has improved the film to a state that makes it presentable at 4k - notably some of the effects shots. Most people would not be able to see that he has done anything other than the movie looks so good.

Now, originally he was trying to restore LD or GOUT to a presentable state and did things like completely recreating the starfield for the opening crawl, but this current project is based mostly on a scan of a high quality technicolor print.