As someone who frequents poorer regions of West Africa, that is exactly what I had in mind. Economic growth driven by increased use of hydrocarbons could massively help the populations there.
Giving a starving person bags upon bags of sugar, and literally nothing else, will definitely help in the near term.
Making sure they can't have stable electricity, affordable transportation or otherwise decent infrastructure sure won't either.
It isn't a binary choice between fossil fuel development and no development. There's a third option, where developed countries subsidize sustainable energy for developing countries on the condition they use zero additional fossil fuels.