Let’s return to the idea of ordering and pacing. In the era before the character models are updated, if we look purely at Vital or Important episodes, I think we’re looking like this:

The Battles of Muunilinst and Hypori - Anakin helps win some early victories, including fighting the new sith assassin Ventress, then gets knighted. Some people have an objection to the Tartakovsky show so I think it’s right to keep this one trim so we can cover off all the key points. I wouldn’t call this skippable but if someone chose to they wouldn’t miss out too much.
The Battles of Christophsis and Kamino - Domino squad are tested while Anakin meets Ahsoka, then they all return to defend Kamino against a competent plot from Grievous. It’s good to focus on the clones so early, and makes sense for the Separatists to target it as early as possible.
The Holocron Crisis - Cad Bane steals a holocron from the Jedi temple in order to kidnap force sensitive kids for Palpatine. This arc often gets overlooked but it’s fun, vibrant, varied, and features good character moments for almost all of our main cast. It’s a very well rounded episode (more so than the Mandalore arc) and lets us spend time with Ahsoka after her introduction, so I think it works best before it.
The Mandalore Crisis - The Death Watch are revealed as active on Mandalore’s moon, and thanks to Obi-Wan and Padme, fail to gain power on Mandalore. This introduces all of the Mandalore elements for the show, as well as the idea of neutral factions and third parties, so it’s good to get in up front.
The Second Battle of Geonosis - Padme and Clovis cause issues for Anakin, Geonosis is a decent battle, and we get some good development for Ahsoka both in the battle and after when we fight brain worms.

Look at that fivesome! I think that’s an excellent introduction to the series, if I do say so myself. The key character relationships are all well established, we get a lot of good development, and they’re a varied and balanced set.

In terms of introducing the other good episodes which belong in this block, I think I’d put them after the Mandalore arc, because I think the audience would prefer to get to Mandalore quickest. We could follow that with Cloak of Darkness, which is Ahsoka heavy, having not had her in the previous hour. The Deserter, Boba Fett arc, and attempted assassination of Padme, would also fit nicely in this block, for some good variety. (The second Mandalore arc would also fit here, but I haven’t reviewed it yet).