Lilies (1996) Blu Ray from Strand Releasing

[mahenrytx]

I'm starting this thread because there is no existing one on the site, and I want to hear what others have to say about this release. I was thrilled when I saw that a "4K Restoration" was coming to blu ray, and I promptly pre-ordered the disc. This film is beautiful and deserved a proper upgrade from DVD.
I finally received the disc yesterday, after weeks of delay (which included emails directly to Strand about this and their apologies). I watched it last night, and all I can say is that I am VERY DISAPPOINTED. This is not a restoration at all. The film is littered with flaws: black specks, white specks, tears, stray hairs, etc. It looks terrible! It looks like they took a crappy old print and just scanned it at a higher resolution--which makes these flaws stand out all the more.
This is contrary to Strand's press release, which says the blu ray was made from "6k scan of a clean 35mm print of Lilies." This just cannot be. I will be writing Strand about this as well.
I'm honestly wondering if there was a mix up of some kind and the wrong files were sent to the factory for pressing the disc. But I wanted to post here to see if anyone else has received a copy and sees the same things I do. I will add some screenshots shortly, when I have time to make them. In the meantime, hoping to hear from other fans of this film and get to the bottom of this.