TLDR What are you optimizing for, what are the incentives, and what is the intent of various actors. The math is the easy part, imho.
When the industry in question is crucial to retaining domestic industrial capacity to counter that foreign nation’s hostile geopolitical agenda, yes it is worse!
Protect markets for legitimate reasons, not out of domestic nepotism and laziness. BYD gets government support, US auto should get the same, but you actually have to show progress towards desired outcomes to justify cross border protectionism.
https://pca.st/episode/830546d3-e3d5-42c7-9fb9-9710fc1604ac?... (citation wrt China EV not dumping)
That begs the question. They're only "hiding behind" tariffs if the price of Chinese manufacturing were fair in the first place but it's not. In this environment the Chinese manufacturers are economic aggressors and the Federal government is shielding local manufacturers from unfree competition.