>I would say that economic development, higher literacy, better health outcomes, and robust human rights protections are inherently good.

I don't think most people would agree that economic development is inherently good, though.

From my point of view, it needs a bit of reframing. In the context of a discussion about politics, it can be useful to assume that the things you mentioned are inherently good, if only as an approximation. Otherwise discussions would take too long and delve into irrelevant topics; there's a practical limit there. But assuming democracy is an inherent good is a really bad approximation for many reasons.