I certainly agree with you that authoritarianism is not the way to go. But I think it's important to bear in mind that there can be different motivations for authoritarianism. These motivations need not include feelings of disgust or hatred towards a child.

I would say that authoritarian parenting styles do imply disgust toward children, because that parent rules over the child with an iron fist and employs corporal punishment when necessary.

That doesn't necessarily imply disgust. It's also possible that the parent may simply believe (mistakenly, imo) that this approach is in the long-term interest of the child.

Just because children are small, helpless, and still developing does not mean that it is acceptable for a grown person to assert their will over them.

I disagree here too, in the sense that I believe their clearly are circumstances linked to the developmental immaturity of children in which the right thing to do is assert your will over their own.

An extreme example to make the point: A child wants to climb down onto the rail track to urgently retrieve a dropped toy - the compassionate parent will physically restrain them if necessary: asserting their own will at the expense of the child's ability to exercise his own.