is he qualified? there’s an argument to be made that he committed treason on january 6th and thus is ineligible for public office

He has engaged in a coup (and has been convicted in the House and Colorado) and therefore is actually precisely unqualified per the Constitution

There wasn't anything against a coup member being on the ballot, which was what happened in Colorado, but regardless of number of (electoral) votes he should not be allowed to swear in

We'll see what ends up happening though

The electoral college was designed to keep the wealthy minority in power, and it works well as intended. At the time that meant places with fewer people, since slaves weren't counted, needed to compete with large cities with more diverse opinions. So the electoral votes don't scale linearly by putting a low cap on them and a minimum. And additionally, it created a necessity for a two party system since if no one gets more than half of the votes, then the whole thing is meaningless since a single person then decides, which can be both controlled by the wealthy super-minority much more easily than having to control lots of parties. And you can confirm this even more by the fact that the electoral votes are not tied to the vote at all. The vote is just a suggestion. The state representative can vote however they want.

Has it ever worked out well?

Reagan was a self serving actor who was elected president of the USA. Seriously, read that and think about what it inplies. That guy got nuclear codes too.

The entire governing structure of the US never was a democracy, and it has always terrified me

He won the popular vote in this past election, and Biden was coaxed into dropping out as he was deemed unfit as well.

Harris was deemed unfit by the American vote as well. Those 15 million people who voted against Trump in 2020 decided Kamala isn't worth their time.