Worker Cooperatives

Some companies are worker-owned cooperatives.

This is called a 'cooperative' and yes it's totally viable. Every corporation is a democracy, except the shareholders are not always the employees. In a coop, the shareholders (or at least the majority of shareholders) are employees (usually due to compensation schemes that give employees stock).There are several examples of large coops, such as Mondragon, Winco, Publix, etc. They do not require any extraordinary corporate structure, and are completely compatible with the kind

It's a cooperative for owners, not workers. A lot of cooperatives in the US exist for owners.

Sounds like a worker's cooperative to me. Many examples of such exist, but they are shackled in the United States because they do not enjoy the legal protections that corporations do.

Worker cooperatives exist. They just don't pay out value to shareholders who do nothing.

Probably doesn't work for many cooperatives that are often a mix of owners and employees.

Never understood why such companies aren't cooperatives.

You can try creating a worker cooperative, then you are an owner, but you don't exploit anyone.

Incorporate as a worker cooperative and not a corporation beholden to shareholders.

Maybe look at stable cooperatives like the Mondragon corp.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation