The best general example of the value of permissionless I can think of is when you compare the working environment in some corporation, vs the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem.
In the former there can be multiple layers of approvals needed to move forward with anything, and if your manager or their manager doesn’t immediately grok the value of some new idea, you can’t move forward with it. It can be a frustrating and draining environment.
It’s the main reason some of the best people in the world leave that environment and do a startup instead. They can move forward with building innovative new ideas with little or no corporate bureaucratic impediments. That’s where the energy and drive is.
MA and others are implying that cryptocurrencies provide a similar permissionless platform for rapidly experimenting with new financial products and services. And they’re not wrong, for better or worse.