Everything that you said in your post is completely accurate. Someone in Spain once told me that everyone knew that Franco was by far the lesser of two evils (the other evil being, of course, Communism). Spain's political life had been disrupted by anarchists and Communists since the beginning of the 20th century, and the Communists had tried every means to seize power. The one that triggered the Spanish Civil War was the fact that the radical left essentially took over an elected (by a very slim margin) moderate left-wing/liberal coalition government and clearly had every intention of turning Spain into a communist state, before the military uprising lead by Franco stopped them.
Interestingly, this same person, who is rather liberal, also told me that even the period of repression after the war was necessary, because everyone knew that the Communists would make another attempt to take over somehow unless they were completely suppressed.
My friend said that what was finally resented about Franco was that, even after the danger had passed, he maintained a very tight rein on life in Spain and unfortunately could not see his way to turning over power to a constitutional monarchy represented by Juan Carlos II during his lifetime. This happened upon his death, of course, and Spain then made a fairly easy transition into a modern democracy.
It's interesting when you compare the progress of states like Spain and Chile after their transition to democracy and capitalism, and the chaos in the former Soviet states as they have tried to make the same transition.
(the Chilean transition after Pinochet ceded to losing the YES/NO referendum was also remarkably smooth, thanks to both the skill of the Chilean President Aylwin and the cooperation of Pinochet and his bureaucrats)