You're absolutely right - it's a very double-edged sword. Pure on-chain bitcoin in its current form is the perfect tool for totalitarian control - guess why the CCP is hyped about their CBDC?

I think that the question of if we end up being caught without an exit or not comes down to if privacy-preserving technology (on-chain like Monero and/or off-chain like Lightning) gets adopted by businesses and individuals enough for it to be too late to pull back once powers that be have the understanding, capabilities and intention to do so.