In the OT Jedi seems to mean more than just Jedi Knight.
Some of the Jedi could use their connection to the Force to defend peace and justice martially (Jedi Knights) and others could just be followers and teachers of the Jedi way (Jedi Masters).
Yoda gives pointed lessons to Luke about wars not making people great and that violence and the use of weapons should be avoided (he is a Jedi Master).
Obi-Wan starts off by giving Luke a sword and teaching him how to use it (he is a Jedi Knight).
So why do we have to see Yoda using a lightsaber (it being the weapon of a Jedi Knight)?
Come the PT all Jedi are martial artists and even the Masters are Knights but of a high rank.
Even their librarians carry swords at all times :
They are reduced from being impartial defenders of peace and justice to being a mystical martial arm of the Republic and restricted by Republican law (so they can't intervene on non-Republican worlds like Tatooine, they can't make their own mind up as to if the Republican Government and it's policies are the problem or the solution).
They are hugely dependent on technology having their own computer centres and robot staffed labs (what's wrong with the Republic having that stuff and the Jedi acting on the Force and instinct...surely the lesson of ANH's conclusion).
It utterly screws up all the grandeur suggested by the backstory as seen from the OT end of the saga and it looks really stupid to have Yoda bouncing around like that when he can pull X-Wings out of swamps using his mind.
The same with Palpatine.
He is the dark shadow of Yoda.
He can shoot lightning out of his hands so why does he have to spin around the place with a lightsaber?
Why does Dooku have to do backflips when old Ben who is younger than old Dooku does not do those moves in ANH?
Why have General Grievous in the saga at all when we are already told that the sabre wielding cyborg who hunts down Jedi is Vader and Vader is a less fancy looking cyborg and yet more of a plausible threat.
If Dooku is a swordsman why give him the lightning ability (thus undermining Palpatine's use of it in the final act of the final story)?
Not only were these films blandly written but they were so badly thought out it's staggering how anyone could like them let alone love them so much that they feel the need to defend them.