Not all the changes are because of embarrassment.

The Lilo & Stitch change was to one scene, where Lilo tries to hide from her sister by hiding in the clothes dryer. They changed the dryer to a storage cabinet.

It turns out that a couple thousand kids a year are injured by getting inside washers and dryers, and a few die. They either get locked in and suffocate, or somehow the machine gets turned on which can cause a lot of trauma.

Its a lack which manifests through an entire generation. Probably because movies are at the intersection of big money and expressive art. So revision of classics becomes status quo. Theres a good word to describe it : DECLINE.

It's fundamentalism. Steven pressfield says it best. We cant find our way into the future so we retreat to the mystical 'golden age'...there are people pitching to remake Bambi - with a straight face. Why? Is there no new story to tell? No new classics to be written?

> We cant find our way into the future so we retreat to the mystical 'golden age'

This is such a perfect quote. Apt for many things.

As a cynic, I'd just guessed that every time they change a work they reset the copyright clock.

It does not reset the clock on the old version (which people might prefer), the changed version is technically a new work. However, the copyright terms are so long that the clock won't run out even for the old versions during my lifetime, so that's probably not the main reason.