I always felt that the rising buildings and hustling culture is never the requirement or criteria to see if a country is developed or not but lately many people think that a developed country means it's the number 1 in the list of gdp.
However isn't it the freedom of people to choose what actually they require rather than throwing a narrative into the society and making them earn money to reach some goals so they think they reached some place...
What I am trying to say is that people meeting basic needs on a daily basis and they are provided with amenities so things are taken care of for necessities like water electricity roads etc... isn't this a developed country?
Why country has to strive to be on top it's up to individual but a country is beautiful when it's not capitalistic in nature and secured the people to make sure they meet basic needs and leaves the rest to people.
Generating tons of money like a machine is not a great deal. Ofcourse without money there won't be army there won't be government but mutual responsible society can achieve this with less friction so people enjoy the liberty of not running like machines and considering growth of country only as economy.
Hope I made some sense