Worse than when in "Return Of The Jedi" Darth Vader takes off his helmet and says "I would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids"?

Surely the worst was when Padme woke up to find Anakin alive in the shower and the original trilogy was just a dream

I understand there were copyright issues involved, & by that point Lucas & Co were deep into pre-production on the "Jar Jar Binks: Fuck it, these suckers will pay for anything" biopic.

You are misremembering. He doesn't take his helmet off. Luke removes it after saying the magical invocation, "Let's see who's under this mask."