It makes the implicit claim that people interacting freely will lead to worse outcomes under some metric then people interacting under the constraint that actions contravening some centrally determined directives result in punishment via violence or the threat thereof.
No, you make that implicit claim. But if you want me to make MY claims explicit, here we go:
The so-called "free market" is a buzzword. There haven't been any such thing observed in actual life.
From the US to Germany to Hong Kong and Brunei (all on the top 20 of "economic freedom"), markets thrive on heavy subsidies, tons of protections, and heavy military and diplomatic action to win favorable deals for exports and secure cheap resources.
All available means are used under this system, from corrupting politicians to pass favorable laws to direct imposing of "banana republics" in development countries for commercial benefit. Heck, even patent laws and copyright is a kind of state protectionism against competition. In all, existing economies have very little to do with "free agents" competing freely in a fair unskewed marketplace. (I didn't even have to mention things such as the $1 trillion bailout and the Detroit bailout here).
Free market economics are based on made-up ideal notions that go against what actual human societies do, not just in regard to how real markets function, but also in their fundamental laws and models, like "supply and demand". Of course in more refined academic economic research you can find criticisms against such naivety, but at the level of "free market" proponents and policy advisors, even at the highest circles, all that is forgotten.
While no 'true free market' has existed in real life, it nevertheless exists as a fairly clearly specified theoretical construct against which actual markets can be compared. Those countries in the top 20 economic freedom list all have markets closer in various ways to this theoretical 'true free market' than other countries.
They also generally have higher levels of economic development, hence the suggestion of a correlation between market freedom and economic development.
