Lucas is fully justified in not releasing the "original versions". He would be a fool to do so, not to mention that would precisely demonstrate the lack of artistic integrity fanboys accuse him (most often wrongly) of. That would be a "strictly for cash" venture, and one that might well not pay for itself (far from all the SW have a problem with the SE, and of those who have I suspect a majority wouldn't care to pay just to get the original version).

The "fanboys'"s demands are completely unreasonnable, they don't understand what it would involve for Lucasfilm to be able to release the original versions. Technically and financially, it makes no sense at all. You all seem to work under the illusion that all Lucas would have to do is have this version packaged and printed on DVD/BR. That's hardly the case.

The original negatives of the trilogy are gone. The SW movies have been rebuilt from scratch from many sources: from still usable parts of the very deterioratd master negatives (the zero copies of the finished films) - parts of which were already so damaged they could not really be salvaged; from still usable negative elements ILM had in their vaults (mostly for ESB and ROTJ, not much of anything, if at all, for ANH); and for certain parts Lucasfilm had no choice (because quality-wise it's much inferior to the negatives) but to work from the rare still existing (and much deteriorated) positive copies and inter-negatives they managed to track down (those theatrical copies and the inter negs that were made from the originals to print them are usually destroyed right after a theatrical run as most copies are already very damaged, and even for pristine/unused ones it would cost far more to store them in proper conditions than to have some reprinted if there's a new run).

ILM digitally scanned all the material frame by frame, then selected the shot specific best existing source to restore each shot. Every shot was digitally cleaned up, removing dust and scratches and artefacts.

When the all the footage elements (all the layers for a shot) still existed, ILM has redone the VFX shots from scratch, not optically as could only be done originally, but using the modern digital compositing softwares (and yeah, aside from conception, that's basically redoing those VFX from scratch. Very expensive). For shots for which the elements didn't exist and those that didn't look bad enough to worth a full redo, they digitally rotoscopied out all the matte lines, and similar enhancements. As they were doing this, Lucas took the opportunity to make some changes to a few scenes that bugged him (and as fanboys would know if they worked in the vfx industry, Lucas did that during the restoration process because that's when it was the most logical and the cheapest to do it, with all the elements gathered and a VFX team already on the project), and eventually started adding a few eye-candy, mostly 3D shots. The original of these scenes that he changed were never restored. There is no source for them anymore but the original scanned material, on which no restoration work was done. To release them, Lucas would have to go back and have them restored from scratch just like he had done for the SE version (and it would be a bit absurd to call those "the original version".

Lucasfilm then re edited the three movies together, shot by shot (and for the essential, conforming the restored shots to Lucas's original editing. He made fairly little changes to the editing for the SE. Minor tweaks. He was a lot more respectful of his original work than fanboys give him credit for.

He would have to redo all that editing process as well, to release a so-called "original version".

Next, they went back to the original audio sources, cleaned them up, re edited them to match the new visual editing, and remixed the whole movies, in itself an involved process as they built a 5.1 surround mix from the original stereo tracks. Again, Lucasfilm would have to re edit the soundtracks and redo the mixes if he were to release the original version.

The changes made were made to satisfy Lucas himself, a perfectly legitimate decision as he is the creator and owner of these works. He has all the rights (creative, moral and legal) to do this. It's rarer in movies, as few directors own their own movies nor have anywhere near the budget Lucas can devote to this, but it's really no different from writers who go back to polish up their novels for new editions,or who correct typos and errors in new printing, from choreographers or playwrights who revise their old works before a new production or from painters who go back and do a new version of an old painting attempting to make them better. There's nothing immoral about it, and it's hardly altering or revising "history". Art isn't set in stone as long as its creator decides it's definitive. It's not like Lucas is trying to pretend the current version is the sole one that ever existed... the new versions are part of the movies's history just like the originals. You want the originals, pay yourself an "historical" copy on VHS or videodisc.

The eye-candy shots and the additions of scenes he added out of personal taste, but also as a kind of test to see what ILM were now capable of and how it would fit in SW (Lucas was starting to toy with the idea of doing his prequels, the work on the SE convinced him it was now feasable creatively, technically and financially), and also because salvaging the trilogy was costing Lucas a fortune and to finance it he had decided to have a new theatrical run of the trilogy, not only a new VHS release that wouldn't cut it to pay for all that. The eye-candy stuff Lucas wanted in, and also thought they would as a bonus contribute to bring enough people back in the theaters to see SW to finance the salvation of the movies.

It would also cost a fortune to Lucas (not nearly as much as the SE, but still a big sum) to restore the "original versions", which would be fallacious anyway, as it wouldn't be the original versions but a recreation that, essentially, would be the SE with newly restored versions of the scenes that were changed. The risk that Lucasfilm would not make enough money by releasing those is great. Of course, there's zero chance that they would include those for free as part of a box set with the "director's cut" version, as fans with no idea how much they would cost have asked out of Lucasfilm (and Rick McCallum had given as answer : "we can't do that, the "originals' no longer exist, we would have to re create them and it would cost us a fortune, beside the fact Lucas is not satisfied creatively with those versions and would never greenlight this).

Lucasfilm has masters of the video transferts of the "original versions". As video and audio goes, they are of extremely poor quality by today's standards (they would look at best like DVD of TV shows from the 80s not shot on film, so in 4x3 ratio, and with poor sound and a lot of noise). They would look positively awful on HD screens. Edit: I remember Rick McCallum saying Lucas would never agree to release those versions as the only source was of too poor quality, but apparently he changed his mind and added them to a DVD set in 2006.

As for changes made to the movies after the Special Edition, fanboys can moan as they wish about money grabbing, the truth is that a) Lucas is fully aware of the minor uproar (limited to a loud and vocal but not that large portion of the SW fanboys) he caused with the SE and that changing the movies is not something he can make money out of, b) most of those changes were not even advertised - fans discovered them as they bought the new releases and c) Lucas made those strictly as he was releasing the movies to a new format. The bottom line is that those changes are strictly creative decisions (not that Lucasfilm doesn't hatch several money grabbing schemes to milk the SW fans, but that's not one of them). Lucas knows a sall portion of the fans will tear their hair out over it, it's his creation and he doesn't give a damn and makes any changes to it he wants to make.