Judging by the surveys In Eastern Europe, people prefer socialism having lived through both

I’ll repeat what I said before. Failed countries are not a good example. People seek something better, and back when they weren’t broken, they had it better, so naturally that implies to them that socialism is better. This is awfully flawed logic - a logical fallacy.

most people don’t have that choice in the first place.

I don’t see why not. I was slightly below average in middle school, yet I got a free spot in university. Again, just because somewhere else education or whatever is broken, does not inherently mean it’s the fault of capitalism.