2. No More Compositing Issues
Take a look at that image. Theres ghost lines, a splodge shadow, not to mention the landspeeder itself looking like it was just added to the frame from a sticker book. And it looks even more ridiculous in motion. Its strange to think then, that what looks like an amateur image edit done in Paint is in fact a still from the original Star Wars. For all its groundbreaking nature, most of the original Star Wars' (and to a lesser extent the later two) effects have dated badly. And not in the same way as the rudimentary CGI of the Special Editions, but in a this is changing cinema, but most of this has never been done before, so isn't very refined way. Sadly, as the car scenes in Pulp Fiction show, dated effects can, if not properly dealt with, pull you too far out of a movie. The decision to correct many of these errors, despite probably being the genesis of the Special Editions, makes many of Star Wars money shots not only watchable, but still mind blowing. Theres a fine line between adjusting matte effects and adding in new scenes with CGI creatures, but if there was a release of the films that had this (and maybe the number one on this list) as the only change, Id be as happy as an almost-purist can be.