Ceausescu was a very low bar, probably only undercut by Stalin, Hoxha and Pol Pot.

My family lived under the GDR (which also had a lot of flaws) but looking back now they'd have liked the economy to stay more on the communist side but with more freedoms, like freedom of expression and movement. They say that during Communism people were nicer to and more looking after each other than they are now under the more competitive Capitalism. Also the GDR was leading in terms of equal payment and women advancing on the career ladder. It also had a good network of public kindergardens and schools all reasons why a lot of East Germans in hindsight have mixed feelings about the unification and transition towards Capitalism (especially the neoliberalist Capitalism that meant the privatisation of i.e. the railways and hospitals).

Of course that came with the backside of it there being an inbalance (and de facto a two class system) between high ranking party members and the public, movement restrictions, harsh border controls (not just to the West but in general, I have been told if you looked funny at the border guard they would disassemble your car "to look for illegal stuff" and you had to reassemble it"), and ofc it being a spy state. But that was never intended by Marx so I wouldn't blame that on communism but on their flavor of it.

Coming back to your comment tho I agree with the "nothing is black and white" section ultimately politics and economics always has to adjust to the current situation and if it fails to do so it'll turn into a crisis.

Also I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as this opinion doesn't limit other people's personal freedom. So I am sorry for what happened to your family as long as they didn't intend to hurt others (which I assume they did not).

Personally I would love that land would be owned by the districs / communes (not on the state level but also not on the private level). What individuals should be able to do is lease land and structures on it from the local commune (with even lifetime leases possible and securities for the the person who leases the land.) On top of that basic services such as water, electricity, food, education, infrastructure, etc should also be owned by the public. The rest is debatable but in general I l'd say centralize where common grounds are needed (for i.e. standardisation) decentralise where possible and politics should be as open and transparent as possible in order to be accountable.