Personal experience from a long past that may very well be wrong:
Just courts at about 20%-25% (20% can still be pretty risky at times) is the thumb rule and allows you to get Loyalty up to a point where you can keep holding Courts and the peasants don't hate your guts anymore. Moral gets up as loyalty gets up so it's not a main concern. I believe peasants expressing themselves just raises moral a bit, while loyalty is the important one. You want control up just to a point to ensure they don't revolt while you repair the region but that's about it for control.
That said, better way to repair a region is let it go rogue. Send in an Ambassador after it and raise sympathy without having the stat drop every day because they hate your rule. Then take over the region as soon as sympathy is decent so you can just hold courts and be happy.
