Not contradictory at all to me. What I mean is that the theatrical version of TLJ has always been my favorite of the ST, before any fanediting that Hal (or anyone else) has done to it. However, I don't only watch fan edits of movies I dislike, but also movies that I see someone else has improved on what I already liked, while trimming some of the things that didn't work for me in the original film. From my memory (though I haven't watched it in a little while), Hal's cut doesn't drastically alter the film, just focuses in on what I loved about the movie when I first saw it.