I need to make this clear.....People of State are not the States. The States are entities that got together to form this nation. The States are disenfranchised with the 17th. They are replaced by the people of the States. State of California is an entity and was part of the Republic. The State of California is no longer represented in the Senate. Without State representation you have no Republic.
Representatives (people)of the states got together and formed the union. And state legislators are people, and they are the ones who would select US Senators if the 17th were repealed. In today's environment, I trust the people at large more than I trust state legislators.
As you argued, the 17th amendment deprived the states as sovereign governments of their right to be represented in the federal government. The Constitution says that the Constitution cannot ever be amended to deprive a state of its equal representation in the Senate. By representing the people of the state, instead of the state itself, isn't that violating the Constitutions prohibition against amending the Constitution to deprive the state governments of their representation in the Senate, and therefore isn't the current method of selecting the senate theoretically unconstitutional?