Say what you like, I still have my own views of the matter. The print sources you mention are all derivatives from the same so them agreeing doesn’t mean anything. You might as well throw in LaserDisc, Super-8, Betamax, and U-Matic for all that says. And mentioning books, scripts, photos, trading cards, comic books, novels, etc has no relevance. I was not much of a fan and never bothered with that extra crap.
Of the trilogy, I saw the original movie 3 times in June 77, Empire Strikes Back in 80, and Return of the Jedi once in 83. The jabba scene sticks in my mind because in 83 it was jarring to see a slug in Jedi when I had memory of jabba being a human before that. After that was a 20 year gap not paying attention to Star Wars at all. Too busy with work and life. Around 2003 my son got interested in Star Wars so I wanted to show him the first movie. We watched it on VHS. That one had the slug jabba in the hangar scene. I was like huh that’s weird, thought sure that scene had a guy originally. Being curious, occasionally after that I tried other sources on DVD and VHS, some had them had slug jabba, some didn’t have the scene at all, and when I saw one with a human jabba, thought ok yeah, finally this is what I remember from 77.
Digging into it abit lately, it seems even amongst the original production staff there is some confusion and disagreement on that scene - whether there were camera or technical problems or not, whether there were one or multiple days of shooting to fix problems, if the scene was meant to be human or a stop action model, etc, etc.
It does bother me that most sources now, assert the scene was cut out of the theatre release. And yet I seem to recall it being there in my marathon viewing in June 77. Could it be a remanufactured memory? Of course its always possible. Have wondered this myself.
But I also think its possible my memory is real. It cannot be denied that they made substantive audio edits and track and print format changes during the theatre run from May77 to Nov78. Also Lucas being so OCD about tweaks then often fibbing about the history, his intentions, etc - doesn’t help me buy much of what he says about that scene.
My own view is 20th Century pushed them kicking and screaming to release something, while they were still debating what to do about that scene. Lucas himself says he asked for money from Fox to change things which gave him heartburn, even while Star Wars was in the theatre. Personally I don’t believe they had any idea Star Wars was going to be anything but a one-off mediocre space movie. So my own belief is when Fox pushed them to release in May77 (months behind schedule), they let the film out with a lot of rough edges both in audio and visual, and while still arguing what to do about this or that. I think once it became clear it was going to be a smash hit, that’s when Lucas started seriously thinking about sequels, things which really bothered him to change in the original, etc. I’m sure that Jabba scene was at the top of the list of things which fried his bacon.