Is it better to let the council die or save them in ME1?

Maybe, but that's mostly speculation and headcanon on your part. When Shepard is landed with the choice of how to direct the fleet, it isn't framed as "divert some fighters to free up the Destiny Acension for further assault on Sovereign", it's framed as "The Destiny Acension is about to be blown to pieces, divert firepower away from Sovereign to protect its retreat".

In the latter situation, which is the one Shepard is in, diverting ships away from the counterattack on Sovereign directly increases the likelihood that Sovereign gets through and kickstarts the Reaper invasion, simply to protect one big ship and three replaceable politicians. The Reapers invading would be immeasurably worse for the galaxy than the Destiny Acension and the Council being lost in battle. Thus, it's more important to focus every possible resource to prevent that from happening than it is to perfectly preserve galactic balance and morale in the happy event that we beat Sovereign anyway.

At least to my mind.

And I've seen the Sphinx with my own eyes, and had a reaction not unlike Kaiden's and Ashley's upon seeing the Destiny Acension. It's one of the few remaining clues to who our ancestors were and what they were capable of, and represents a mystery that sits at the heart of what it truly means to be a human being on this planet. And if there was even a tenth of a percent of chance that grounding it to rubble would help protect humanity from annihilation, I'd be on my way to Egypt with a bag of dynamite right now.

Except you're still covering its retreat, not freeing it up for further engagement. The Destiny Acension, saved or not, wouldn't be of any further use to destroying Sovereign when the chance to attack it appeared again. All the ships lost if you used them to defend it, on the other hand, would. 

You were the one who pointed to the in-universe's population's "reverence" for the ship as a reason why it's a priority. 

Yep. Its something I've been saying for the last few years. When the commander says abandon the Citadel, I get that. She wants to lure the enemy away from the Citadel. But when she says evacuate the council it doesn't make sense. They are not in any immediate danger. Once there is a possibility of them being in danger, have their security get them to a shuttle and fly away from the battle. If not, get them to an underground bunker.
I don't recall seeing any Turian ships firing at Sovereign after it's barriers were disabled? Even after the barriers were disabled, the thing still wasn't taking any damage. It was the itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny frigate, with a fighter on each side, that made the shot to destroy the reaper. For that one moment, it became the most powerful ship in the galaxy. The whole scenario was setup for the SR1 to destroy the reaper. Had the Alliance ships sat back and did nothing, the outcome would have been the same. Or if there were 1000 ships firing at the reaper, it still would have been the frigate destroying the reaper.

If that's what you would do, ok. I wouldn't. It would be a waste of resources when a shuttle can get them away just as easily. Plus a shuttle is much smaller and can get to areas a larger ship can't get to. That could make a difference when trying to evacuate the council.

I know I've been pushing "save the council" here, but I'm going to play devils advocate for a moment.

Considering the backdrop of ME 2 and 3, I think Bioware expected people to let the Council die as the Canon. Me2, anti-human rhetoric is standard in the wards. If you save the council, you would think that would not be so. You prove that we are all in this together by doing this, and yet...

If you let the council die in ME1, then the world of ME 2 and 3 meshes better. Why are there so many humans in C-SEC if you save the 10,000 aliens on the Ascension by sacrificing so many human soldiers? If you let the council die, makes sense that other races are angry about a human take over of C-Sec and a human being on the council. Major power grab.

For continuity, letting them fry in Geth Hellfire makes a certain kind of sense, I suppose...

In your scenario, why bother with changing when the artifact was found.  In ME3 currently, I believe the Asari councillor does indicate that she doesn't actually know where the Catalyst is and that the artifact MAY (only possibly) help Shepard find it.  There is evidence to suggest that Vendetta never appeared to any of the Asari who set up the Temple or else he would have confirmed the "post-Prothean cycle" previous to being activated by Shepard.  We don't even really know for sure that they were able to activate the beacon itself at all.  The humans on Eden Prime recognized the beacon there as something special without having activated it themselves.  All that's certain is that the Asari found it <snip>

I think the Council deserves to die. They're composed of idiots and that does not change throughout the trilogy. However, the ending of ME1 has a very dark feeling if they're dead and certainly implies the "new" Council is composed entirely of humans. That could easily explain the distrust of humanity in ME2.

That said, the new Council won't talk to you in ME2 and, while ultimately less antagonistic in ME3, are still cold toward Shepard. They also try to play chess with the fate of the galaxy. I get that they don't want to specifically go to Earth but they should have at least asked for a coordinated effort. Instead, "do Chore A for me, which will lead to Chore B before we can help" and then take the entire game. The asari... sorry, but whichever asari Councilor is there needed to be shot. She refused to come to the summit because some salarian who attended was upset about it. Then they refused aid until their backs were against the wall. Feel bad for the asari who likely died due to her poor decisions.

In the end, it doesn't make much difference other than that they won't talk to you in ME2. Other than a few minor dialogue differences, it doesn't matter even in ME3. Want to go Renegade? Kill 'em. Paragon? Save them.

While I don't care about the council dying,  they had no say in their death. I would put that on the Commander of the destiny for failing her duty by not getting the council to safety when they boarded the ship. For that, the council did not deserve to die.

That's right. Send them to the recruiter, themikefest, for questioning to make sure they're fully committed to the cause.

Sign me up!