I cannot disagree. It was similar in Central Europe, for example in the Kingdom of Hungary the feudal system ended in 1931, some hundreds years later than in France.

On the other hand, I know several people whose lives are made worse by the occupation. There was a period of some limited freedom a few decades ago, now it seems worse. As a Westerner you can't just visit Tibet and go where you want. And when you go there, you can notice that apart from official and public situations, Tibetans will avoid any contact with you. Many of them are simply afraid of accusations of spying or collaborating with the enemy etc. They try to keep a low profile and be obedient to stay away from prison. They cannot possess objects like a picture of the DL and so on. So even though from a material point of view their lives might look better, when you talk to them, there is no happiness inside.

You are just regretting the fact Tibet is no longer a large anthropology zoo that westerners can freely visit and observe, like the romance recorded by Ernst Schäfer or James Hilton in the 30s. It's mystic, primitive and slavery culture destroyed by CCP while locals are adopting welfare and education and modernizing to yet another indifferentiable boring place like an average Chinese town.

It was never a zoo. The lamas weren't keen on letting visitors in, and the Chinese continue this tradition, although they will kindly let you in a few known places if you agree to be under constant surveillance.

Chinas invasion brought with it all those horrors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution You would need lots of modernization and economic growth to offset this. Plus its hard to say where Tibet would be without chinese occupation.