I worry that this sort of analysis puts process ahead of results.

In large-scale decisionmaking, such as regional or national politics, most voters are confused and inattentive. I think this is inevitable and even proper. The world is too complicated for most people to have informed and thoughtful opinions on most topics. As a result, I don't particularly care if the process delivers results most voters want. Instead, I care if the process delivers decent results. And in particular, I want decent results for impatient voters and potentially-dishonest election apparatus. First-past-the-post has the important benefit that as a voter I have to indicate one preference, rather than an ordering. This requires strictly less input from me, and therefore probably less attention and thought, which is a Good Thing.

I would be interested to hear an argument for why all the voting theory stuff is useful in practice, given the constraints and goals of practical politics.

We have some examples of cities and countries that use systems other than first-past-the-post. Which of these actually are better governed as a result?