How would you feel if two recent elections had your candidate winning the majority vote, and asked to concede the results to the electoral college? (2000 & 2016 now)
Modern elections should be truly representative of the people. One voice, one vote. Btw, trump was against the EC but seemed to have made his peace with it now. I guess he wasn't so principled that he'd give it to HC, hm? But that would have been pretty amazing for either side to take that stand.
By the way, if you think old papers written by old men didn't change with time you haven't been paying attention.