So for those that have asked... I did some experimenting with Mentor's release and more modern filters tonight.
Things I did with the original release (for better or worse):
Mpeg2source(...,cpu=6) -- If I remember this correctly. There was quite a bit of blocking and ringing artifacts. This also cleaned up some of the mosquito noise.
Restore24 -- to recover as many non-blended frames as possible. (Restore24 has an internal bobber).
New filters tested:
Mpeg2source(...,cpu=1) -- Just enough to remove the blocks, but not enough to soften the picture. Lots of other types of compression artifacts were left behind though.
SRestore -- Faster and more up to date recovery of 24 fps.
Yadif -- SRestore needs progressive source and this is the best of the fast filters.
yadifmod(mode=1, order=1, edeint=nnedi2(field=-2)) -- A much better bobber. My CPU is chiseled out of stone, but with patience it can handle this.
fft3dgpu(sigma=1) -- GPU based version of fft3dfilter. A better way to clean the mosquito noise.
What did I see?
SRestore pretty much picked the exact same frames as Restore24. Neither seems more accurate overall.
CPU=6 versus CPU=1? Blocks are all gone, but mosquito noise and haloing is more pronounced.
Fft3dgpu? Removes a good deal of the mosquito noise, leaves behind all of the haloing. Softens the picture to about the same level as using CPU=6. Pretty much a wash between this and my previous dehaloing/deblocking.
So... not worth redoing under these conditions.
Interestingly it took SRestore() with yadifmod(mode=1, order=1, edeint=nnedi2(field=-2) to generate about the same sharpness of detail as Restore24() did in my previous release.
To sum up: A version 2 would give maybe 10% better detail (mostly because newer deinterlacers are better), leave behind bit more artifacts, create some minor banding (if you look carefully), and require a good deal of work and a LOT of CPU time.
I'm pretty comfortable keeping things as they are. Stay tuned for the soon to be released v1.1... no really, I mean it this time! It's finished and everything.