I fully agree that there are things that need to improved, one of them you hit right on the head:
"Why is voting for disabled witnesses even a thing?"
Fully agree.
However, as we can see, until we manage to get consensus on issues that concern our governance and our voting model, the responsibility lays with all of us to do our best so as to ensure that our ecosystem works as best it can with the given "flaws".
As for "your vote counting":
My point here is fairly clear, that all our votes count, even and especially those votes cast for dead witnesses.
Look a the grand total of vote value on dead witnesses, it literally = enough to change the entire governance (top20) here on Steem.
or should I say Top30, as there are 30 votes that each and every one of us can cast.
It really does add up and your vote, as mine, as anyones is a part of it.
But, yes, I tend to agree fully with your points about "fixing things".
These figures confirm that too, so "right on" with that one.
Cheers.