Also (and this might be the uninformed European in me talking), the reason I never understood this whole thing is that states in the US have their own legislatures - they make some of their own laws, they have their own elections, etc. So going with the same example above, California can hardly "bully" Wyomingites in matters pertaining to only Wyoming because Californians don't have a vote to cast there.

But at the FEDERAL level, states should be virtually irrelevant - because there, when it comes to e. g. presidential elections, you're talking about the nation as a whole. When it comes to representation for citizens of the NATION AS A WHOLE, every one of those citizens (or their votes, rather) should be "weighted" equally, no?

I've lived my entire life so far in a federal republic, as well. I don't think I've ever heard any complaints that, say, my own state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as the most populous state in the country, is "bullying", for instance, Bremen - nor that people from Bremen get a per-capita advantage like in the US over people from NRW to prevent that from happening... Which means that I've also never felt bullied by them in this manner. In matters only pertaining to NRW, people from Bremen get fuck all of a say and vice-versa.

I can think of historical reasons why it might've shaken out like this in the US, but no rational ones off the top of my head why it should still be the way it is over there...