G&G-Fan, don’t know if this is you, but someone mad a long-ass post on the Star Wars subreddit, r/MawInstallation today, basically defending the same idea you were. Thought it might be worth sharing here since it is relevant to the thread!
I usually avoid reddit so I’m won’t follow the link, but the title is intriguing. I would have to agree that in the Prequels the Jedi ARE the good guys. They were always intended to be. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have flaws. And they are not even to blame for all the flaws because of the circumstances. Palpatine, and who knows how many generations before that, have been working in secret. I can’t say whether all of them have had the goal of defeating the Jedi, but Palpatine certainly did. He wanted ultimate power on all levels. And he got it. To do it he played a lot of games with the Jedi. He corrupted more than one of them. He put the galaxy into a war to get what he wanted and the Jedi felt the impact in their ability to access the force. So they admit to that flaw on screen. The other things are written into the story. I never accept George Lucas’s words of what he meant over what he actually wrote. His history of accuracy is not good. His recollections tend to be unreliable. Mainly because he answers everything from a certain point of view which may not be what he was thinking when he was writing, directing, and editing. He is notorious for doing this with the Original Trilogy.
But yes, the Jedi are without any doubt the good guys. But they are operating under a handicap and we are not seeing them at their best.