McFlabbergasty, in terms of comparing all the various variations I've read of Episodes I-III I think it all comes down to the context and tone one is going for in their particular interpretation of the prequels. For yours, you're creating a larger war narrative, almost suggesting a cold war like tension between the Empire and Republic that falls apart once the external threat is gone. Indeed you get right to the punch as far as really shattering the old Republic and demonstrating both sides A bit like telling of how the Nationalists and Communists in China reluctantly aligned against the Japanese in the late 30s and early 40s only to eventually war with each other. Certain a fascinating concept and likely one worth telling.
For me though, the whole series must be played as a grander tragedy. Not of Anakin Skywalker overtly (though he is symbolic of many elements), but of the Republic itself. I can't rush to civil war (or have a civil war at all) because mine is designed to demonstrate the Republic's legitimate strengths and virtues. The audience has to see and care about how good it was and be disheartened by it's slow degradation via war. Specifically a largely external war against an invading foe, a conflict that would seemingly distract so many from the growing problems in the Republic, yet ironically serve to exacerbate them.
In my telling Palpatine can not and should not be a Machiavellian planner who manipulated the whole galaxy in order to rule it. It pushes him over the top and renders him a cartoonoish supervillain rather than a brilliant antagonist (yeah I know I'm basically talking about a despotic evil wizard here, but stay with me). The Empire and the Emperor's terror can better resonate with audiences if there's a degree of acknowledgement and fear that things like them can and have existed to us.
The version of Star Wars I see in my stories suggests that Palpatine drafting a complex scheme to become Emperor, involving creating an entire intergalactic conflict and gaining greatly expanded powers seemingly overnight leaves him unreal and the forces of good as either ignorant or impotent.
Yet one who was simply cunning, seeing a contemporary conflict, and utilizing it to his advantage? One who rather than being intelligently proactive, is brilliantly reactive; turning so many incidents out of his initial control into advantages for himself whether its attacks on Coruscant or subtly influencing one troubled Jedi he had met? Terrifying, if for no other reason that it makes one realize that men like that, either in the Star Wars or in the real world don't need complicated plans; all that's necessary for them to flourish is things to go wrong, and that's a terror that resonates with anyone.
Finally that whole matter points back to what I said about the the importance of tragedy as a major theme. Those in the Republic, whether citizens, many in the Senate, and the Jedi all did what they thought was right, saving the Republic from a dangerous invasion, only to realize too late that the worst danger came from within. All the decisions and acts done in order to defeat the enemy, to end the war as soon as possible, to bring peace the galaxy, yet so many of those would bring about doom for so much. That which served to save the Republic from conquest, would ultimately serve to damn it to tyranny, and that's something I just don't think a civil war story can as well as an external attack.
(Sorry about the length, I'm not always this long winded)