What if they realised they'd made a very stupid decision and if there'd been some more checks and balances that decision could have been avoided?

The Third Reich, I think we can all agree was totalitarian. Hitler wanted to plunge into a war on two fronts against the USSR drunk on victory against France and expecting to beat Britain. Most of his military advisors weren't keen. But being a Dictator he could just do it and hey presto war against Stalin. As time went on he got more erratic, made more random millitary decisions overruling his generals and made a pigs ear of things but whatever decision he made on a whim happened straight away anyway.

That's just a famous and obvious example of a totalitarian leader rushing into things and getting where he wanted to go faster which didn't end well for the leader.