Free markets aren't a binary thing. There's a range from full free market to total communism, with all points along that range.

The more free market an economy, the better it does. The more communist it is, the worse it does.

C'mon, be serious and name an actual "total communism" entity, please.

I have no love for nominally Communist States - they're authoritarian centralised party states a gnats arse or less from full dictatorships perpetrating the lie that they're on the path toward some socialist | communist goal - but they are all far away removed from such things.