For my prequels, I just ended up concluding that the Jedi had long since become far more loosely organized and spread across the galaxy rather than a more tightly knit council around the core systems. They had already descended into myth like status for many as a great deal weren’t really visible warrior monks anymore. There were still Knights of course, but loads of Jedi engineers, farmers, teachers and so forth for their own regions and worlds became far more common. Not only does it allow for sympathetic conflict/disagreement about how deeply non-Jedi knights are to be involved when the war starts, it also demonstrates the greater tragedy of the their destruction by Palpatine; righteous warriors and the backbone of numerous communities wiped out.

Obviously that’s wholly different from the Lucas prequel Jedi concepts, but I think there’s value in moving away from the orthodox council idea