I guess this all boils down to: who is better at creating or enforcing regulations — the state or the free market?

The difference is that free market regulation has competition, the regulations will better reflect reality, whereas the state will manipulate regulations for self-interest. It is a monopoly and must stop creative destruction or die, which means it must control the source of creative destruction: future minds.

State-sanctioned: birth, air, water, food, information, knowledge, freedoms, assisted death.

The state controls our inputs in an attempt to control our outputs.

But as long as inflation exists, the state will have relevance.

Government: “Look how terrible the world is — we must exist for your protection.”

Free market: “Look how terrible the world is — let’s try to build endless solutions and let you choose what works.”

One is centralising; the other is decentralising.
One must reduce agency; the other increases agency.

Once inflation is corrected for, this becomes purely a battle of good vs. evil.