Why are they wasting millions on these fake show elections? That would make even less sense. Have you considered that the fact that millions of elections are held every year actually has something to do with the government being responsive to complaints? People complain about shit in the US all the time in the same ways, and nothing gets fixed. Maybe not spending billions on campaign ads etc actually makes the elections better. If anything the idea that elections are “for show” seems more applicable to the US since no matter who gets elected things don’t get better, and the extremely expensive spectacle of the election itself is the only thing that matters.