"Progress" is a rhetorical device used to paint whatever actually happened in a positive light. But coincident with the positive elements of the rise of western society, is a whole lot of tragedy. Wars with unprecedented brutality and scale, genocide, factory farming, mass extinctions and the systematic destruction of the planet, selfishness as a defining cultural trait.

Replacing competition with cooperation may have accelerated the positive aspects of progress (e.g. science), and maybe slowed or prevented many of the negative ones.

Here's a treatise on the topic, if you're interested in this counterpoint: https://www.alfiekohn.org/contest/