yea, its like the Cuba thing, some points to be made for Venezuela and Nicaragua as well.
I know a Cuban neurosurgeon, and he is perfectly happy with the trade-offs he is making. I meet cuban scholars all over the world, they study in Spain, and so on and so on ... yes politically they keep their mouth shut, and given the breadth and scope of the US embargo, they are in many ways not doing so bad.
Not everyone requires a system built around prioritizing a pathway to being a billionaire.
Its a shame the US isn't a tad more considered in its policies, at home and abroad. It could certainly be worse, but that anational clique of which US power is a part is often a bull in a china shop.