The growth was a form of "capitalism on a leash".
I was there, I had a good long look at how this was being played.
There can be many reason why it happened, both inside and outside of a "communism doesn't work" framework. Anyway, I'm not sure why I even made a comment. Maybe I was just bored.
How about this: Total freedom is also freedom to murder competition and abuse customers. A little planning, like making some basic framework of laws can make sense.
In a very stable society you can observe free trade and make predictions, and do planned economics based on it. However, things will change over time, and again you need...