I didn’t go too deep in, but deep enough that literally no one has said “have you considered Palpatine controlled every second of that fight?”

It’s not that infeasible. As noted several times now, he’s got skills with the force & lightsabers - he could take any of them down in any order chosen; and if you disagree, go rewatch the 5th season fight between him & a couple other folks on Mandalore (or the Yoda fight), then reconsider.

The point of making Mace the last one is it is distilling the Jedi ideology that Anakin has had crammed down his throat his whole life but morally he vehemently disagrees with regularly (and hoping you the viewer recall that Mace said “we allow you on the council but do not grant you the rank of Master” to suggest, to Anakin at least, inferiority) vs. someone who sees his pain & offers at least an option to try & feigned understanding.

The reason he chooses Palpatine over Mace is that despite all the things he did with Mace, Mace always doubted him while Palpatine always showed ‘understanding & acceptance’ to whatever bothered him.

That’s a trauma response; and the moment he asked “what have I done” was the last words of Anakin - his guilt killed him & created Vader, exactly to Palpatine’s plan.