Given the relative rarity of human excellence, less good than the converse, on balance; were it otherwise, what you rightly call 'excellence' would be merely commonplace.

Yes, you hit the period right on the sentence.

You mistake me, I think, due to imprecision on my part; by 'it' in the second clause, I refer to the rarity of human excellence, not to a theoretical flowering of suppressed potential in the absence of what you regard as oppressive rule.

Low hanging fruit.