First of all, you are asking me to provide a better argument for another case altogether. Authoritarianism is bad because it enables party cadre to outright st

First of all, you are asking me to provide a better argument for another case altogether. Authoritarianism is bad because it enables party cadre to outright steal businesses (expropriation) and protect incumbents. The case you want me to argue authoritarianism is bad for business is where the state is buying goods or services and picks a winner by providing state patronage. The short answer here is that when the state picks winners, they are screwing themselves because the incentive to innovate disappears in companies that managed to attain "regulatory capture". There is also a significant incentive for big companies to merge or bid on government contracts as a joint-venture (e.g. Airbus, United Launch Alliance) because they can form a price cartel. That the state does not break up these cartels and goes along with it is because politicians are generally not too savvy and most likely a good amount of corruption is involved. Anti-trust laws are used to protect consumers and businesses, but ironically I haven't seen them used to protect the government as a customer.