If you have dealt with countries like Russia, one idea that can be useful for understanding them is oligarchic capitalism. That the purpose of the economy is to benefit the elites. That the share of wealth that goes to the common people is an overhead necessary to keep the system running. Which, like all overheads, should be kept to a reasonable minimum.

Oligarchic societies do not try to maximize the overall economy. They try to maximize the wealth the elites can extract. If there is an alternative where the overall economy is 2x bigger but the elites receive 10% less in absolute terms, it's clearly a worse outcome from their perspective.

From that perspective, government services should not be evaluated based on their outputs or their impact on government efficiency or economic growth. They should be evaluated based on their impact on the elites. If they don't benefit the elites, they are overhead that can be cut if necessary.

Oligarchs do not care about the economy in the sense it is traditionally understood in the West.