Am I missing something in the Leonard Maltin quote? I'm not seeing where he's defending the movie, all I see is him saying Disney should do a rerelease of the film in the style of Walt Disney Treasures series which had similar styled introductions for the controversial shorts in the sets.
Yeah, you got it. It seems he is pretty obviously asking for there to be a proper introduction so the movie can not be altered, preserved so we do not dodge history, and understand what mistakes may have been made in the production, but celebrate the strengths and not demonize the positive people and messages involved. James Earl Jones was actually pitched to narrate/host the introduction.