What you said exactly!
The senate was never intended to be a popularly elected federal post. In the Constitution, the role of the Senate was to provide a senior deliberative body to counteract the people's House. Senators were to be elected by the legislatures of the sovereign states. Once selected, their paramount concern was to be the welfare of that state and its citizens, not to become mystical pundits on Meet The Press topics.
One benefit would of course be that since 30 states are Republican dominated, the senior deliberative body might be much more conservative than it now is. The welfare populations of the large cities already have their advocates in the House. It is patently unfair to allow these Third World enclaves of fundamentally unproductive and now un-American urbanites to dominate the Senatorial selection of otherwise conservative states.
Another benefit might be the ability of a state legislature to "fire" a Senator who is not performing his primary function of preventing harm to his state and its citizens. A vote in the state house would certainly be faster than a recall campaign!
Where is Cruz, I wonder, on the need for a Constitutional adjustment, sending the 17th the way of the 19th!?