> it's also undeniable that as a coordination mechanism the EU has been spectacularly successful.

I get you like the EU, but "spectacularly sucessful" isn't something many people would use. See covid response, and Ukraine war response. I would describe EU's mechanisms as moderately successful, i.e. somewhat better if states did everything on their own and bilaterally.

> The fact that people treat it as a national government is proof of that.

People with triste knowledge of how EU works do that. I do not think having most people in dark about how EU works is "spectacularly successful".