Like many other system in the World, elections are to chose people's representatives, not to chose the government nor the technical apparatus (like the EU commission).

The US president is one notable example of non elected position.

Anyway, the proposals must be approved by the parliament, which is elected directly by the EU people in number proportional to the population of the single countries and then ratified by the single EU parliaments, which are again elected by the people.

I wouldn't exactly call it "abundance of unelected regulatory positions".

On the other hand though: Europeans kinda suck as a blob. See Italy electing fascists again, Germany stagnating for decades under Conservative control, basically everything east of Germany etc. Etc. The parliament is dominated by Conservative authoritarian forces as well. In that sense EU legislature is just too good at representing it's people.

I gave a speech to my computer science course when the new copyright directive was about to go into its final trilogue round in 2018. Wide agreement in discussion afterwards, but not a single student cared enough to make their wishes known to their MEPs. If even they don't do it, i can only say we're getting what we asked for.

That’s because when some of them do they get threatened with sanctions while others can simply dictate policy. The eu is not an equal members club.