I think large groups of people can get tired of the wave of edits, and even get put off trying to watch any given the shear volume of them, but as far as will this tide ever be stopped?
No.
This well will likely never run dry because of the particular perfect storm that is Star Wars, and the Prequels in particular;
If you grew up during the 70s and 80s, chances are you loved Star Wars. Chances are also pretty good that you had Star Wars toys who's very commercials encouraged children to create unlimited story possibilities with their toys and action figures, and boy, did we ever, for countless hours.
Star Wars further enticed us by famously being the middle 3 chapters, which themselves referenced mysterious events before hand, and in those intervening years between Return of the Jedi and the Thrawn trilogy, all we really had was our imaginations.. limitless.. and we all created stories, theories, hopes.. and so-on (further enabled by the toys and action figures).
Whether you love the PT or hate the PT or are somewhere in the middle, one thing is universally true, they are inescapably NOT what any single one of us imagined. Millions of fans dreamed up millions of ways the first 3 chapters would play out and Lucas had the impossible task of telling a story HE wanted to millions of people who'd spent a decade dreaming of their own. While there is much love for them now (and even more appreciation since the ST came out), it is what it is.
With the availability of professional quality editing software and Mike Nichols showing us what could be done with the Phantom Edit.. I don't see there ever being an end to it, it will never tap out. Interest in watching them may dwindle, but the desire to create the version that *You* want.. people will never tire of making them because ultimately each fanedit of the PT is a deeply personal vision of the editor, and people will keep making them because while there are many edits which are considered 'some of the best' there will always be people for whom those lauded edits just don't do it.
My edits are loved by a lot of people, and I've been told by many that they are their 'go-to' versions, that those are the ones that their children will see when introduced (the single biggest compliment ever). And there are those that think my edits are terrible, didn't care for creative choices, that I left things in, or took things out.. I even had someone literally say I did something incorrectly, that it was wrong. Some people like a lot of my edit, but think things could be better by making changes.. or that some parts were done better by other editors, and so some have incorporated ideas I used in their own edits, heck I think people have literally taken my edit and edited with other edits to create their own super edits!
That's what we do with SW more than any other IP, we make it our own.. I like how this guy did that, I like how this guy did that... I have this original idea of my own and so-on.. add in the brilliant and crazy way people shift things as Dwight said, from Grindhouse to Tarintino'd to Rediculoused and the many more concepts to come..
Then on top of it, we now have a never-ending supply of new content for editors to work on.. new content creates opportunity for new ideas, new approaches.. sometimes because the content itself just is lacking (Looking at you Sequel Trilogy) or because the new content offers a new perspective or framing possibility.
But after all of that, I also don't blame people who personally just tire of new SW edits.. all I suggest is, shrug and look the other way, fortunately there are tons of non-Star Wars edits to feast on.
