>>Obama, for example, got over 98% of the vote in some precincts in NYC and Phila, but those precincts got no more weight than ones that split 51-49.
Yep. MMP says that the share of popular vote translates to number of seats in the house, with elected members topped up as needed from a non-elected party list. The party or coalition with most seats then asks permission from the Queen's representative to form a government. This does allow voters to select a local candidate from one party while voting for another to be government.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
