re: Ranked Choice voting...

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You don’t have to. Leave it blank if you’re too dumb to inform yourself before showing up

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And your vote gets thrown out if your #1 doesn't win right away.

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Common sense. Your vote isnt redistributed to a second choice if you don’t list one.

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Exactly, and it's thrown out because of it.

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You mean just like traditional runoffs where a significant portion of voters don’t show back up?

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Except you did vote, and your vote doesn't ultimately count.

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RCV is just an instant runoff

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It's not just an instant runoff. In a run off, there is still typically advertisements. There may be debates. There may be additional lobbying for votes. You don't get that when your vote is discarded because he or she didn't get enough of the total votes. Also, if there is a run off, that means that you've already had the opportunity to vote for your candidate and have your vote count already.

In addition, if you do participate in the ranking, your vote may go to someone you actually don't like and don't want to represent you. You vote for your #1 with the hopes that he or she wins, and fill in the rest of the ballot without much of a care, but if your #1 is eliminated early, your vote is now cast for someone you may not actually want to win (there may be a huge preference gap between #1 and #2, or #2 and #3, and so on). So, your choice is to have your vote thrown out, or have it go to someone you don't actually want.

Like I said: this system can end up with candidates getting elected who have hardly any support from the electorate. Is that how we want a representative republic to work?