the context where the electoral college made sense was way back in the day before all states decided to allow their citizens to vote for president.
in the first ever presidential election, only 6 states allowed the people to vote. as the cons ution says, states individually decide how to allocate their electoral votes. other states just allowed their legislature to appoint the electors.
so yeah, in a wacky system where different states have different methods of allocating electors, the college somewhat makes sense (assuming we are not taking into consideration the inherent imbalance because of the senate).
but since the civil war, every single state has determined their electors by allowing a popular vote. now that there is that complete uniformity in the country, the original rationale behind the EC doesnt make sense anymore, from a practical perspective. sure, theoretically, tomorrow some states can change their laws going back to the old way and taking away the popular vote to decide electors (lol good luck getting that passed). barring that, the only reason to keep around the EC is to over the will of the majority on occasion