I knew a guy who served in the Iraqi military after the fall of Saddam. He did not serve under Saddam, he was not pro Saddam. He told me that under Saddam, you could walk down the street at 1AM with ten thousand dollars cash in your hand waving it in the air and nobody would try to take it from you. Religiously motivated attacks simply did not happen. The flip side of that, if you got involved in politics or messed with his business, you disappeared.
Another friend of mine, a Zulu man from south Africa, told me he missed apartheid. I was awestruck when he told me this. He said he couldn't go into certain parts of cities without a work permit and couldn't own certain land in certain regions, he had limited freedom, but that the streets were clean and there was much less corruption and crime.
(Note: This isn't a one off either, there's actually currently an anti corruption ovement that is mostly black in ZA with elements of pro apartheid sentiment, it's truly bizarre.)
These were both very much outgroup people, probably happy with the change in the status quo, only to with hindsight feel like they lost something. I'm with you, I'm opposed to autocracy, authoritarianism, and I'd rather live in a messy society where everyone is free, but often there are tangible benefits in systems like this. Dictators and authoritarians know this, they know that when times are tough people want security, and they use it to great effect, and it works.