One major sith apprentice per trilogy please...

After viewing many different thread-posts on the forums I noticed a lot of talk concerning Darth Maul and Count Dooku. Particularly with people loving one and hating the other. While I liked both characters I think GL introduced both of them poorly, and in Maul's case, killed him off way too easily. However, the real problem is we have no real villian to hate/love in the first two movies of the pt because Darth Maul was killed off too early, and in Dooku's case, introduced too late into the trilogy (then being killed off early on in ROTS). I think it might have worked if we had Palpatine as the clear villian (in the sense where he has more screen time as a villian openly to the viewers in the first two movies). That being said it would have made more sense to combine the jedi background of Count Dooku with the interesting character and fighting style of Darth Maul. That way not only can he defeat Qui-Gon in TPM thus setting up rivarly with Obi-wan (and Anakin later down the line), but can also help unite the seperatists in ATOC, and then serve the role of catalyst for Palpatine's seduction of Anakin (exactly like Dooku did in ROTS). Before everyone freaks out and posts millions of responses explaining to me specific plot points that would not allow my suggestion realize that for my opinion to be valid one must accept the PT would have been written drastically different then what we got. While I did greatly enjoy ROTS, the first 2 pt movies left a bit to be desired. All 3 PT movies feel seperate from one another. There were too few unifying threads to make it feel like a continuing saga. Rather, it felt like two movies of build-up leading to a rushed ROTS. I'm curious to read replies that give possible plot lines that may have allowed for one sith apprentice instead of two poorly executed ones (three if you count grievous).