“They were better off with Marie Antoinette and the Louis.”
Infinitely better. Louis XVI had already agreed to reforms that might have equaled the Magna Carta. But the reforms were neither fast enough nor radical enough to satisfy the atheist intellectuals who held sway over the mob. And Robespierre was far from the only villain in the piece. Every (French) revolutionary sympathizer (including Paine and Jefferson) bears guilt for the Reign of Terror.
Heck, Jefferson in many ways was even WORSE than Paine in that regard, considering that unlike Paine who presumably traveled to France AFTER learning about its revolution and missing key details due to the months travel required, Jefferson was on-site the minute the revolution occurred with Bastille Day, and despite getting a good look at the carnage STILL supported it.