You are attempting to compare real life situation (shopping mall) with virtual life. Sorry, but those are totally different situation. Choosing toilet paper affects my every day life, choosing steem witness don't. If I go to shopping mall the variety of toilet paper can be hidden from me, that's no problem I can always ask shop assistant for help. I don't want to choose between 500 different brands of same product, it is a waste of time. When the choice is too big I always ask for help. Very big table with all steem witness listed doesn't help in any way.
The main problem with steem witness is that there is no shop assistant.
Yes, there can be a good witness below 200 rank. But choosing is all about invested time and statistics. There is no profit for me in investing more time in reading all about 400 witness and choosing some of them. Like most users I'm here for fun. If you want my vote you must more advertise your work.
The logic with regards the ability to freely choose in a FREE MARKET is the same in both cases. Steem is entirely based on the principle of the free market, yet the voting page is not.
If you use Steem on a daily basis, then the choice of witnesses does affect your daily life since the witnesses can decide whether or not to adopt new rulesets in the in hardforks.
A correctly laid out table will be the best help here. Just because you yourself do not want to do full research does not mean that others don't. There is no requirement for you to look at the full list. Imagine what would happen if we could only see the posts from the top 50 most paid out Steemians? Guess what, you would earn nothing.