Given enough pressure, you can hold someone accountable for being bought with the electoral college. There will always be someone ultimately responsible with the electoral college and those they represent. With a direct based election, there would be no representative and be harder to find a problem with the system and correct it.

I mean, could you imagine the headache, money, and time it would take to go through every single vote and to prove to everyone who asked whether their vote was accounted for? Deadlines would be shot to hell and demands for a recount is a near-impossible task as it is.