Enlightened despotism used to be a popular idea. I don't think it works because there is no guarantee they despot will optimize for country outcome rather than personal enjoyment.
Even Bible notes at some point that you have no guarantee that the son of the enlightened despot will be as good as his father. Still, the effectiveness of that type of rule is very appealing, especially comparing to the impotence of democracy and the fact that we have serious global problems that need to be solved right fucking now.
My main worry about enlightened despotism is "what happens when the despot kicks the bucket?". No guarantee their successor will be as enlightened as them.
If you solve the succession problem, enlightened despotism starts sounding very good.
That's good enough. It's better to have a stable and reasonable ruler that tries to do the Right Thing (i.e. optimize globally in the scale of country) than everyone trying to have it their - however smart or stupid - way.
