No, it actually works. When California went through with it, the “other side” actually gained seats. It takes the drama out of redistricting, and districts are of a much regular shape. Of course, isn’t perfect, but a sucks way less solution is much better than a sucks way more one.

> It takes the drama out of redistricting,

The California process may produce better results on average by some measure (and is emphatically more transparent) compared to legislative redistricting, but it emphatically vastly increased the drama associated with redistricting.

How so? Californians seem really happy with it, all things considered.

Largely, the transparency, which meant public hearings with lots of involvement from interest groups, with accusations (which turned out to be true) that both major political parties were actively working behind the scenes to coordinate those groups to bend the process to their partisan advantage, and all kinds of related drama that didn't happen with legislative districting.

But, yes, I think people are mostly satisfied with the results, which is a separate issue from drama in the process.