The other way to do this in a large raid when people aren't necessarily showing high attendance is EPGP with decay. Rewards the people who show up more often than those that don't (so the raid tends to have more of the loot that's dropped present). It also avoid the "Bob has tons of DKP, is away for 2 months, comes back and grabs the coveted item on the boss that he's not helped to get on farm" thing. Filter that by roles (no, the DPS warrior doesn't get tank gear over the tank) and you're close.
Council works better if everyone is showing up almost all of the time but how often is that the case in 40 mans? Right. It works in current mythic, but I don't see it working as well in classic 40 mans.