I understand the purpose and functionality of the Electoral College. The purpose of the EC wasn't to "weed out" unqualified candidates that caught the public attention, at least not nationally.

Whenever the Constitution was first created, obviously communication was a lot slower and more difficult. If you lived in a Southern state, you probably weren't very aware of the politics of New England, and vice verse. Because of the difficulty of communication nationally, people often times weren't even aware of all the candidates who were running, and would just support the most popular candidate in their region. The purpose of the EC was to ensure that a populist candidate who had strong support in only one part of the country wouldn't be elected.

The EC functioned perfectly this election. Hillary Clinton pandered to population dense urban centers and ignored the rest of the country. Had Hillary Clinton won, it would've been because she had strong support from the populous cities; however the EC ensures that the winner represents a broad range of Americans nationally.