Can happen in democracies just as much.

Fun fact, MBS is a big fan of Age of Empires 2 and plays it in the mornings. Also funny story, I once saw a match being played, around US night time, where one player built a line of houses into the enemy territory so that the opponent was forced to micro their soldiers manually. Think of that what you may.

"Let's exit one of the largest and most powerful economic and diplomatic unions"

"Let's give away control over our country to real estate agents"

There have been strong stupidest vibes all over in the recent years.

The location itself is kinda decent for development. It could've been pretty feasible if the plan was to pump desalled water up the mountains and let it flow down like rivers through smaller developments, while pumping out water laterally for irrigation.

Could've slowly greened their side of the Red Sea, hooked themselves up with a bridge to Sharm (and onwards to Cairo I believe with Egypt's HSR plans), built a few marinas, resorts, and stuff, and become quite a popular destination for a fraction of the cost.

Didn't they have a whole plan for processing the brine into concrete for development, too?

Someone called Putin started 100× worse war and enjoyed the close to unanimous support domestically.

Someone committed genocide in Palestine who cannot not be voted down.

I think I really don't see any better political systems.