You could also experience these effects if you were trying to build weapons. Or a monopoly. Or lots of things. The reason you haven't seen compelling evidence

You could also experience these effects if you were trying to build weapons. Or a monopoly. Or lots of things. The reason you haven't seen compelling evidence that regulation adds anything to technological progress is because it doesn't, almost by definition. Regulation serves to protect citizens - entrenched special interests too. That protection means funding space races and intense times of technological progress, or dampening an out-of-control feedback loop of wealth/power accumulation, or a bunch of things in between.