The Soviets certainly did care about minor complaints, but that isn't an issue today. Today's more modern repressive regimes aren't concerned about minor things. They are much more interested in things like metadata (ie that X is friends with Y). They would rather have that complaint happen than not. The modern oppressor fears silence, fears a lack of data. See the "going dark" debates.

Asking the population to report on itself has limitations. They have to know what is to be reported. They need to know what is good and bad. But what if the dangerous idea is something that you don't want the population to know anything about? What if you want to supress an idea without anyone knowing what you are doing? That's the modern context: removing data and changing stories without anyone knowing that you are pulling strings.