Totalitarian states almost universally favor Heavy Industry over Light Industry, Agriculture and dense tenements over suburban sprawl, and care very little for complaints the streets aren't lit well enough when they'd rather invest in their military instead.

There are systematic differences in the types of growth found in Democratic vs. Totalitarian regimes. I am not saying Totalitarian regimes don't lie (they most certainly do), but this (levels of light pollution as seen from space) is an absolutely nonsense measure of economic growth that has been used by the West for decades now to claim that countries with more Totalitarian governments are poorer than they really are (the reality is much worse: they are better off than portrayed, but the ruling class of Totalitarian regimes often steal immense amounts for themselves such that the economic growth doesn't benefit ordinary people...)