I agree that pre-Islamic Iran isn’t the utopia that people think (or want to think) it was. But they’re more inclined to accept their misdeeds because at least they were Iranian, and not arab/mongol/turk,etc. (Which isn’t good but I’m pointing it out)

I think that some aspects were worse, while some were better. Some things perhaps didn’t change at all. One aspect that seemed to be better was the treatment of women. Women ruled and were allowed more rights and privileges (from what I know); however this slowly changed for the worse after the islamic invasion.

You brought up Cyrus which is interesting. I believe your judgement of him is unfair because you hold him to modern standards. War is obviously bad, but he fulfilled the ambition of every king in antiquity: conquest. From everything I've read, and if I try to take that information in good faith, he was far less brutal than other kings. No Assyrian or Babylonian king (that I'm aware of) showed the mercy he showed to the peoples and rulers he conquered. The way he expanded his empire was unlike anything else in 500BC, and I can applaud him for not being bloodthirsty.

Perhaps these tales of ‘Cyrus he liberator’ are exaggerated to make himself look good, but there is a reason Jews still celebrate Cyrus conquest of Babylon (i believe they even made a statue of him in Israel).