It’s always more about the wisdom of limitations.
A hard leader is only bad when he’s stupid and untalented.
Forceful promotion of good ideas, even if sacrifices have to be made, is always well received by people lately.
In short, the main thing is the idea, reasoning and strength, where it leads. Ideas of total freedom and democracy are illusory – most often such things end up in banal mess. We still need to filter out the most talented individuals for the roles of political leaders, not mediocre.