[generalizations]

What I think you've failed to account for is that what you see as important is not what a lot of people see as important. And you may or may not have better reasons for your perspective.

For example: a lot of people see massive beurocracy as a bad thing. Cutting it back, even in very rough fashion, even with potentially selfish motives, is seen as a good thing.

In your example re: tariffs. What's interesting is that tariffs are fundamentally a social exercise. You can use them with a light touch, to encourage/discourage specific industries in fine detail, or you can use them as a club to force concessions from other countries. Using it as a club requires an aggressive approach that many people don't even understand and have never themselves experienced. When you don't know how it works, it just looks dumb.

There's a lot that probably is clumsy here, but I think that making absolute statements is showing your hand a bit.