> At best this boils down to the idea that people don’t always know what’s best for them [...]
It doesn't simmer down to quite such a small volume. The problem is that even if everyone knew what was better for them, they might still not be able to coordinate on getting there.
The phenomenon described in the linked article is mostly about coordination problems. Not so much about decisions that individuals could make.
Indeed, even when everyone has perfect knowledge of their best life and everyone else's you can still get deadlocked due to (lack of) coordination and trust. One could argue that all of the truly interesting problems in economics are about coordination.
It doesn't simmer down to quite such a small volume. The problem is that even if everyone knew what was better for them, they might still not be able to coordinate on getting there.
The phenomenon described in the linked article is mostly about coordination problems. Not so much about decisions that individuals could make.
See https://equilibriabook.com/ for a book length treatment.