And common sense reforms like longer hours and more polling places? Those are also used in most functioning democracies, but bills for voter ID nearly always do precisely the opposite, e.g.:

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/29/texas-voting-restric...

It creates the perception that it has nothing to do with ensuring the quality of the vote at all.

What you say is true. It's also not what I suggested.

With anything political, you can almost always find politicians contorting them for their own benefit. That doesn't mean the underlying concept is bad, only the contortion is bad.