Yes, small and medium firms do exploit workers more than collectivized industry, correct. Establishing a fully collectivized economy isn’t an overnight endeavor. I think this is where your lack of understanding of Marxism is coming into play, you claim I’m fully sold on ideological dogma but it’s because I’ve read theory and listen to Chinese economists, follow metrics and data, etc that I can see why they are taking the course they are taking and why it works.

The working class supports their system in China, because it has steadily delivered rapid improvements and continues to put the working class first. Socialism is not some moral absence of exploitation, but an economic system, and one that continues to deliver better and better results for the working class.

I don’t “cheerlead” Russia. I know it’s a dictatorship of capital, my critical support for Russia rests in that it opposes the US Empire, has a populace increasingly supportive of returning to socialism, and is a valuable ally and trade partner to socialist countries like China, Cuba, DPRK, etc, and in that respect plays a progressive role in the global transition to socialism and eventually communism.