I think the problem with favoring the popular vote is assuming that the popular vote is representative.

There are other ways to do it, and we can probably agree the main issue with the EC is FPTP. The EC, or a republic itself, is not wrong. FPTP is the primary issue with it, imo.

The EC itself exists for the same reason that we're a republic. Because we're too big and diverse for people in New York to tell people in Georgia that their way of life is wrong and then tax them to support a New York way of life. And vice versa. At some point even with the current system we fought a civil war over that struggle. It exists as a compromise between geographic and popular voting.

I know you haven't specifically said you support a popular vote at all, but in my opinion a popular vote is the equivalent to an entire group of people telling a people with an entirely different lifestyle that they're irrelevant straight to their faces.

Also, if the EC is rigged, it's currently rigged heavily in favor of the Democrats and the urban population centers in general, given that for the last several elections a republican has started SEVERELY behind in 'guaranteed' EC votes, having to pick up far more swing states in order to win. I can't remember the last election where a Republican didn't need to pick up the inside straight of several swing states in order to win.