IMHO the EC is a good thing, but living "electors" is not.
The States should adopt ways of counting EC votes that are both automatic and constitutional.
We need to eliminate the possibility of "faithless electors"
The basis for electors was as someone said, back in the 1780s there was no instant mass-media coverage of events.
Information is so available now that we no longer need real electors to change the popular state votes.
Once again ---- you can't have it both ways. The Constitution calls for sentient human beings as Electors, not robots.
"Faithless electors" is as bogus a term as are "red state" and "blue state". Electors are supposed to work out of conscience, not "faith".
Your second point though is well taken --- in the late 18th century a voter from say Georgia might know little about a candidate from New Hampshire and vice versa, one of the prime reasons for having an EC at all. That of course is no longer the case.
Of course the proverbial elephant in the room is that another reason for the EC as it was set up was Slave Power, which also no longer exists.
A logical conclusion from these of course would be "wait, why are we still doing it this way then?" Especially when the vast majority of the world that votes, doesn't use such a proxy system. Well, Pakistan does, that's good company.