Context
Blu-ray remasters as the reason for not pursuing a full, film-based remaster for DS9.
The documentary What We Left Behind (2019) provided a glimpse of what a studio-led 4K remaster could look like by rescanning specific film sequences. Fan projects in 2020 used these professionally remastered clips as a "base" to further upscale to 4K, proving that AI could achieve sharp results with both live-action and CGI.
The 2020 surge was driven by the maturation of machine learning tools like Topaz Labs' Video Enhance AI