That sounds like a rather benevolent "dictatorship." I wouldn't expect the "average dictator" to give two shits what people want.

Well personally I'm pretty cynical, I also don't expect much benevolence from a dictator. There are examples of it in history though.

While I don't want to live under a dictatorship, I'd argue that a dictator will only be as good as the system that put them into power. A huge issue we have today in the US is that our political system is so broken and corrupt that the only people willing to work their way to the top are ones we likely wouldn't want to have power. It may be a democracy of sorts, but if the system is broken the leadership will match regardless of how many/few are in charge.

For what its worth the average dictator is even more concerned with public approval (or the facade of public approval) than their democratically elected colleagues. They know their rule rests on a foundation built in sand, unlike a democratically elected politician that has the legitimacy of their institution and can expect to be in power until at least the end of their term.

I didn't say this very well, but this is genuinely a well studied area in Political Science.

That does make sense though.

Most often the dictator is making the right decision for their personal life. IF they build anything useful for the people at all it is because they want to avoid a riot (bad for their personal life), or what a monument for how great they are.