One aspect of the Electoral College is that it's a built in corruption firewall.
Right now, if an election system is "compromised" (electronically, corrupt officials, etc), it will affect that precinct, the local elections, possibly the state-wide races, and rarely the Presidential.
With a simple majority vote, a compromise anywhere in the system - adding or removing votes - impacts the system as a whole.
Most of which are Parliamentary systems which are very similar structurally.
In those cases, you don't directly elect a Prime Minister either. You elect an MP in little winner-take-all elections and then the party (or coalition) gets together and elect the PM from their own ranks.
It's not quite 1:1 with an Electoral College but it's not direct democracy either.
Right now, if an election system is "compromised" (electronically, corrupt officials, etc), it will affect that precinct, the local elections, possibly the state-wide races, and rarely the Presidential.
With a simple majority vote, a compromise anywhere in the system - adding or removing votes - impacts the system as a whole.