There is rationale that is compelling. The Founding Fathers awarded some small extra power to . . . essentially farmland. Farming is just as important to society as people, in those days. Probably more important than some people. You can’t have people living on cropland or it would not be cropland.
Similarly, all that oil in North Dakota, few people live there but the oil is vital, a lot more vital than most in cities. The FF awarded some minor extra power to small states, and none of those states will ever approve a constitutional amendment to remove their power. And so no such amendment will pass.
The rationale of a republican form of government over a “democracy” is very compelling.
But even more compelling here is the legal argument that regardless of who agrees with the rationale, the Electoral College won’t go away without a Constitutional Amendment which, as you say, won’t happen.
So the “popular vote” argument is moot and a waste of everybody’s time EXCEPT to point out to the Left that it is a constitutional issue.