Whenever the people prefer a demagogue or a dictator, one will appear to assume the honor.

it's hard for me to imagine, in this day and age, anyone having that actual preference. I know there have been some groups in Russia, for instance, who advocate a return to Soviet-style nonsense, but I've tended to chalk them up as either those who materially benefitted from Soviet corruption, or those for whom self-determination is a frightening and alien concept (ie, those who are unable to imagine themselves leaving the cradle, no matter how cold and uncomfortable that cradle has been).

Isn't dictatorship, after all, really just a pseudo-religious attempt to create heaven on earth (to put it crudely)? Would people with any measure of political sophistication prefer such an arrangement?

While there may be an unfortunate percentage of humanity still living under dictatorship, would a majority of them actually choose it, given a real choice...that is, between dictatorship on one hand and some form of self-rule on the other (and also assuming they actually understand the choice itself...and have a genuine understanding of democracy, rather than laboring under all sorts of lies offered by the demagogue in question)?