Would "Sgt. Pepper's" be a better album if.....

The reason SPLHCB is almost always at the top of lists of best albums is because of its originality and great songs and inventiveness for the time and to a large extent it survived very well. It was you could say a benchmark. Actually, now that I think about it, there were really good albums by individual Beatles after they broke up, All Things Must Pass, Lennon and Plastic Ono Band and Band on the Run to name a few.

Just listened to the new Pepper re-mix and I like it very much.

I never cared for "psychedelic" music. LSD ruined Rock 'n' Roll!

LSD probably ruined a lot of things but I think true rock and roll as seen in the late 1950’s while still lots of fun was too limited to have a long lifespan hence all the directions rock/pop music went in subsequently, which I view as a good thing delivering a much broader range of musical styles to choose from. That’s progress. Sgt. Pepper was perhaps as much responsible for this as any single album release ever. Hence its fame. Music and recording still holds up pretty well.

While we're talking about changing Sgt.  Pepper, the Taj Mahal (not the dead Trump casino) could use a few improvements as well.   I would not want to live there.

I don't listen to much psychedelic music anymore but I think there are some great examples of psychedelic songs that still sound good today.  It's probably true that the lesser examples of the genre are more embarrassing than those of some other styles, but every category of music has its hits and misses.  Personally, I think rock peaked some years later, around 1973.  While it still survives and produces some worthy recordings there hasn't been much in the way of revolutionary sounds since then.  There are a lot of nice re-treads and mish-mashes.