I'd be very surprised if twenty or even ten years from now it wasn't legal in most places in the West and regarded by most with moderate indifference, but that could be said of a lot of things, good and bad and sometimes really bad, that have happened in the past too, and it's nothing to do with democracy, which is all about what the majority thinks is right right now. As I said, what NY did is totally legit to me, but I think on fairly simple issues like this, where there is no pressing urgency nor wads of connected bits of issue and precedence to sort through, a straight up or down vote by the electorate is the most legitimate and moral route to pursue, there's enough resentment toward the government these days without adding on anything else that can be seen as them dictating morality to the people, who don't not generally regard them as poster-children for that trait in the first place, people feel better about the outcome, win or lose, when they had a direct say. We skip that, by and large, either when their is urgency, a clear and obvious majority, or an issue/law sufficiently detailed, complex, and/or otherwise minor as to make a mass informed vote impractical.