The studios pick the codec. Fox likely used the same (crappy) MPEG-2 transfer they had on hand. So the blame is theirs. And there have been glorious MPEG-2 transfers on BD. It is old, but it clearly doesn't suck; it's just a space hog this day and age. Don't fault the format for what the...
Let us not forget the early Die Hard DVD's sucked, especially 3, which even in its second incarnation isn't as good as the other two. I don't know why these bad transfers slip through, but they do. I think it's especially bound to happen with catalog titles when it's not a fresh transfer and...