You've nailed it. I call this the Galadriel Principle and it can be applied to many things: weapons, executive procedures, etc.:

“And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”

Oppression when Galadriel is on the throne may be better than that for Sauron; it's still oppression.