Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

That describes literally every government on the planet pretty much ever. Power and secrecy move in lockstep; any power relationship inherently includes information asymmetries. Thus the notion of radical transparency as a defense against it cannot but be met by aggression from the powerful.

Which is of course no reason not to do it. We should and we must.

I greatly enjoyed your analogy of extreme secrecy versus extreme transparency as high-energy versus low-energy states. I however would like to offer a counter-argument:

Given that we already live in a world where society runs on secrecy and the powerful control most of said secrecy, a rising tide of transparency might frighten those with things to hide into behaving themselves but I suspect it would embolden a new wave of poltroons and knaves who are utterly ungiving-of-fucks, who might even welcome the transparency because they won't have to lie about what monsters they are.

I think he wants to say it. I think he's pissed off that he's gotta hide from us. I think he wants to say that he made a command decision and that's the end of it.

AND

Power means never having to lie. To anyone. Ever.

Sometimes, the people in power aren't the kind of people who are interested in hiding. Sometimes, what they really want is the opportunity to engage in the brute exercise of raw power exerted against the unwilling who submit or die, everyone knowing their place.

In short, what happens if the power structures remain intact in a state of transparency but hijacked by those who have no fear of secrets?