If Denethor hadn't committed suicide

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Faramir Jones

There's also the fact that Elrond, when calling his council to decide on the fate of the Ring, made no effort to contact Denethor to send an envoy. (I know there was a vision that prompted Boromir to volunteer to go to Rivendell; but Elrond wasn't aware of that.) Surely the ruler of the main state opposed to Sauron was someone who should have been consulted?

If I may quibble here, a bit, Elrond didn't so much "call" a council as people just showed up. At least, such was the case with the representatives of the Dwarves and Mirkwood. Glóin was sent to find out what to do about Bilbo and Moria... and Legolas was sent to report Gollum missing. At least Gondor had a representative, by happenstance--of all the places you'd think Elrond would have called on, Lórien should have headed the list, but no one from there--Círdan was represented, but--here too, it's a coincidence:

Originally Posted by The Council of Elrond

... and with him was Galdor, an Elf from the Grey Havens who had come on an errand from Círdan the Shipwright.

My point, I guess, is that one can't really read anything into who was represented at the Council of Elrond--at least not from the intentions of Elrond. Eru, maybe...