@ Gimpy
well, this IS the "Radical Redux" thread ... so think BIG changes, not just "minor" cuts and tweaks to what is already flawed ;-)
Most important thing is to make the Jedi for us viewers likeable - not a bunch of weird dudes sitting around and doing nothing or just wielding their sabers at mindless droids ...
secondly Anakin needs an complete overhaul.
not only to make him less "whiny" - we need him to be the friend Obi-Wan told Luke (us) about - not "from a certain point of view"
good ideas are to have the duality played out - nature VS technology, religion against non-belief (or other views) - so OB1, Yoda and Anakin should not always be on the same side, I think it would be good for them to switch sides through the trilogy, at least on time, to show their progress - towards enlightment or to darkness ...
as for Yoda, I had a long thought how we can have more story and less "stuffing" - why not start Episode 1 with a prologue like "Lord of the Rings'" did ? - show what happened in the last decades/years, not just make a text read a boring "backdrop" that didn't even play out that well!
and then when Yoda takes leave as spiritual guide for the Federation (I see him more as Ghandi or Dala Lama!), he vanishes into exile (yeah, right here, maybe to be never seen again ?)
have OB1 be a supporter of the Jedi Order, who stays behind in a kind of Switzerland / Vatican like Jedi-state on Coruscant - maybe you are right, lets have at least Jedi as ambassadors on the senate, so to speak on their spiritual behalf ;-)
Anakin is like Ob1 a loyal servant of the Republic, they are "young and restless", they don't see the dangers of the oppression yet - Ob1 will be the first to "defect" and will go into service under Bail Organa, while Alderaan was either neutral like the Jedi Order or went with the Federation, they are victims of war now ...
you say, Plapatine isn't "enough" to "control" the whole senate, well true, but he didn't do it just on "dark side" influence - ok, we could have Valorum or any other "puppet" be his "mask", even Palpatine could be a token of "Sidious" (or maybe Sifo Dyos / Plageious)
as to "why not clone limbs / organs ?) - hm, that didn't happend later in the OT either, or did it ?
Vaders armor is somewhat a tool, a weapon but a prison too - as for Grievous, well he is another kind of "monster" - better mix him with Maul and have something "cyborg" that could rival or be prototype for Vader ...
another thing is the Jedi council ... I thought hard about that and it needs to be trimmed down, say it is like a tribunal, for declaring who is to be trained or who gets promoted to master, even verdicts like when a Jedi is to be banned from the Order, that should be talked here, not "daily news" ... so I would have a forum or debate room, filled with at least a dozen Jedi from all ranks and disciplines, and HERE they decide what the council should declare as "law" - makes it more democratic and not "hokey" a we have it now (but even this "good" could go wrong!)
one point I have really trouble to wrap it up is Luke and Leia's mother - aka Padme Amidala - she is somewhat a focus of problems, but somehow we do need "her" in the story, shouldn't we figure out how the Force could "conjure" twins without a mom ;-)