Honestly most dictatorships are less effective at crushing the freedom and spirit of the populace as democracies are. If you go someplace like Myanmar or DRC, the response to the whims of a dictator are something like "you and what army." Most of their populace doesn't even listen to what the dictator says, nor pay taxes or any of the like. Democracy scams the populace into thinking the government is actually 'them' which disarms them into subservience.

Occasionally you do find a dictatorship that can run with an iron fist and actually subject the majority of the population. A couple of divergent examples are UAE/Dubai -- which ranks higher in economic freedom than the US. On the other hand you have places like DPRK which are just an absolute shithole all around.

Depending on where you're at democracy definitely functions worse, than say a kritarchy (ex: Somalia, which was more prosperous and peaceful and better respect for individual rights under decentralized 'xeer' law than under any democratic government.)