I can claim on this anonymous website that I’m actually a sentient computer running for president, but that doesn’t make it reality.
Hmm well yes I guess you could indeed claim sentinence, but it doesn’t make it true.
Many, many people misremember many, many things.
You sure you aren’t just misunderestimating?
OK, I’ve done a good bit more poking around the web including Usenet from 1983-84. A few of us old farts are remembering the same thing. Problem is, its very few. Nothing from a lot of sources I would expect to have said something if they had found any evidence. Such as restoration efforts I just learned about (Harmy and Negative1). Oh well it was 4 decades ago what can I say.
BTW, whats so wrong about the prequels? Oh wait - Jar Jar Binks, never mind.