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Well...  he was working with the Pikes.

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That's not really the "canon" interpretation. The Rule of Two literally means there are two, a Master and an Apprentice, and no more.

Rule of Two

But that only applies to the actual Sith, or the ones that call themselves that, anyway. There could be a thousand fallen Jedi, dark-side Force users, etc. running around, but only two "Sith." Dooku broke that rule when he took Ventress as his apprentice. The only reason it matters is because the strategy worked...the single Sith Lord worked his way up to the position of Emperor, and had an apprentice tagging along (Maul/Dooku/Vader). He brought balance to the Force by destroying the Jedi Order, so the numbers of light and dark side Force users suddenly became a lot more...equal.

But if the Sith HADN'T succeeded, the Rule of Two would have been essentially meaningless. Anyone who wanted to could have called themselves "Sith." I'd expect that at some point in the previous few thousand years, some fringe Force sensitive came across a Sith holocron and started styling themselves as "Sith," and taking an apprentice, at the same time the official "Sith" were somewhere else in the galaxy. Maybe several times.

It's just a title, and a self-taken one at that. Palpatine would have been equally as evil and effective without it.

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If you need incentive the last few episodes is the best Star Wars ever made. Including The Mandalorian.

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They're gonna copy the Marvel formula. Several individual story arcs culminating in an "End Game", so to speak.

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The last season of Rebels is well above average.

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In the end, it's kind of a pointless discussion.

The winner is whoever the author/writer decides it is. If a Mandalorian fires off his Whistling Birds and downs a Jedi/Sith or two, it's because the story needed it to happen. He's either the hero, or the villain. If, on the other hand, the Jedi/Sith held up their hand and stopped all the little missiles with telekinesis, or turned them back against the Mandalorian, it's because that's what the writer wanted to happen.

Trying to get consistency out of dozens (hundreds?) of authors over a 40+ year time span isn't really possible. Lucas tried...for a long time everything had to be approved by Lucasfilm, or even by him personally. Eventually that devolved into "don't fuck up what George has already written and you're fine."

For the most part, though, the media portrays the Jedi/Sith as literally superhuman (superalien?). They can accomplish anything and everything with the Force, if they have the will. If they fail, it's because they needed to for the plot or character development journey. The hero or villain can block incoming blaster bolts from a dozen stormtroopers or droids or whatever, but the secondary characters die.

A perfect example is falling. Jedi/Sith can throw themselves out of moving aircraft, fall hundreds or thousands of feet, and land safely in a superhero pose. But when you need one of them to die, you toss them off a building. Maybe after cutting off a limb, but still...the glaring inconsistencies are deeply embedded.

The same thing happens in the philosophy. The Jedi are supposed to be peacekeepers, non-violent, etc. etc. etc., but they never fail to use violence to solve a problem. They're control freaks, and the instant they feel control slipping away, a lightsaber comes out, and the bodies hit the floor. Or, sometimes, that's the go-to-first. Look at Ahsoka in this season of the Mandalorian.

Did she have to run through the forest and literally murder a dozen troopers before approaching the gate to give her demands? Couldn't she, basically being an invincible ninja, have crept into the main compound, cut down the two guard droids as she dropped in, reflected a blaster bolt into Michael Biehn's face, and beat down the woman, all before anyone could have realized what had happened? It's happened before, many times in the shows. Sneak in, maybe have to fight out. Instead, she goes all judge, jury, and executioner on a bunch of flunkies first. That also happens a lot. So much for the ideals of the Jedi. More glaring inconsistencies.

But, back on the point we were discussing, Ahsoka was able to fight Vader almost to a standstill. She would have lost in the end (because everyone has to lose to Vader except Luke in the end...plot), and was saved by Ezra. She would also have gone through the Dark Troopers like they were paper-mache. She could have probably held her own against Luke for quite a while.

Din was about two steps and two seconds from being cut in two. He's alive because that's what the plot said. Had he been one of the faceless Mandalorian cohort that trained him (and that he was no better than), she would have cut down several in the space of that scene.

And that's the problem with arguing who would beat who in any genre of media. Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris. Superman vs Batman. Din vs Ahsoka. Who does the plot say wins? Can you really make a compelling argument of any kind as to who, in our warped imaginations would win any given confrontation between fictional super-beings (Bruce and Chuck included)? Our favorite will win, because that's what our imagination wants to happen, and we'll always come up with some convoluted reason why.

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I'm hoping these series all end up tied together as a set of feature films that all but erase the fuckups that were the sequels.

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One of my issues with Maul was they did not give him an apprentice after The Clone Wars....he was trying to corrupt Ezra in Rebels...but to me giving him an apprentice to carry on the Sith after the death of Palpatine and Vader was a mistake....and a scene at the end of TRoS with Maul's apprentice and an apprentice to him/her would have been interesting.

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I'm hoping these series all end up tied together as a set of feature films that all but erase the fuckups that were the sequels.

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That would have been infinitely better than recycling Sidious.  Unlike his former master, Maul sought to consolidate power throughout the underworld to have the hidden power and influence of the crime families for himself. He, and his successor(s), would have been formidable opponents with that kind of backing.  Further, unlike Palpatine, he could openly threaten innocents to use as leverage, effectively holding entire planets as hostages.

Hell, with just his little impromptu coalition he was able to conquer Mandalore remarkably quick.  Imagine if he could have expanded that power throughout the outer rim.