Most of the EC already proved themselves unworthy of leadership when they pushed to pass Chat Control repeatedly.

That's far closer to a dystopia than anything the US has proferred recently.

https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/

Yes, a more accurate characterization would be someting like partially elected legislative branch.

The parliament is directly elected, but it doesn't have full legislative powers. It can't propose new laws and the Council of the EU has veto over the parliament. Dissolving the EC also needs a supermajority.

The structure is at least way less directly democratic than any EU country.