You must be young, and Not remember. Registration worked fine for majority of history, pre 1970, I believe thats when sono bono copyright act made copyright automatic.
In fact auto registration has shifted power towards the fewer.
Can you support these claims? Just because "it worked" doesn't mean it was better than the present system.
The upside of automatic copyright is clear: you don't have to bother registering every blog post you write if you want to prevent people from copy-pasting them.
The downside is less convincing: tons of material "unworthy" of copyright are automatically protected? Well, who cares if I cannot copy some HN comment...
That HN comment may have a historical significance you can't see now, but it will be lost because of automatic copyright. The most valuable historical material are the thoughts and experiences of "average people", because that's how we can truly understand an era. How will people in 500 years understand this era when it is likely that most of the popular culture and social commentary will be lost by then?
In fact auto registration has shifted power towards the fewer.