The economics is totally irrelevant, The only thing that is relevant is loss of Soviet power to control Eastern Europe. Once that is gone, all bets are off. The major benefactors may ultimately be Social Democrats rather than some kind of conservative, liberal, or Christian Democrat party, but that doesn't matter. Once Communism loses its monopoly, Hungary - or any other country - will start to become "normal" in their politics like other free European countries.
In any case, the idea that a free Hungary able to choose its own future would keep workers councils permanently is not a very strong one. Assuming that there is a modicum of freedom and elections, it is inevitable that political parties would develop that would advocate different kinds of economic enterprises.
Historically, the far left or Marxist inspired parties have always performed poorly in actual free elections except in very unique circumstances. Typically it is under 5% but sometimes it can be as high as 15%. Only in unique cricumstances does it become higher than that. So while Hungary might initially have an economy run by worker's councils, after a few years or possibly up to 2 decades, the economy will transition, allowing more and more free enterprise. There may be significant labor protections or even labor roles in certain kinds corporate forms. Existing businesses may even keep the council form. But there will be a demand by small businesses, prospective new business owners, and farmers for a fundamentally different form of business, and in the long term, those will be accomodate in some way. Provided the Communists no longer have monopoly control, it is going to happen even if it is done by a few baby steps each year.
It's that fear which always prompts Communists to tyrannize the countries they rule. Which is why I think even if the Soviet Union allows Hungary to get out of their thumb, they won't make the mistake again.
It would be interesting to see if established companies under worker councils could outcompete new companies established under different lines. I think long term, worker councils are more likely to engage in rent seeking which means eventual competitive loss to more dynamic traditional "private" corporations, but that process could take a few decades.
Well, Italian communists in all their post WW2 history, French and Finnish communists in a sizeable part of their post WW2 history, the AKEL Party of Cyprus and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1946 (and, to be fair, the Czech Communist party still nowadays, quite surprisingly) do not second your proposition
Of course, we must also remember that pre-WW2 almost all the socialdemocratic european parties were also Marxist ones, and some officially abandoned Marxism only a while later (SPD 1959, SPO and PSF I'm not sure, mediterranean parties well in the late 70s-80s).
Also, in 1956 Hungary had a booming and developing example of how to organize a working socialist market economy in neighbouring and tremendously popular Jugoslavia. Of course, this might mean that Hungary itself may suffer from some of Jugoslavia's own problems later, but if the country hadn't imploded in civil strife, today Belgrade would be quite close to the Czech Republic, economically speaking.
I've done a little research on this subject for a university paper: the USA considered Hungary pretty much a lost cause, but did some real planning on Poland, when Gomulka risked a full-fledged Soviet invasion. Eventually, they were all scrapped because they ended with "how do we stop soviets from resupplying their forces?", with some commanders at that point calling for "tactical bombing on entrance points". Mushrooms all over the place.
However, the most feasible version of the plan envisioned a UN-backed interposition force made up of Jugoslavians, Indians and other 3rd Worlders to appease USSR. Something similar may had happened with Hungary, Tito had half an idea of invading when the situation spiraled out of control and anticommunists started to summarily execute secret police agents in the streets.
Nonetheless, if Hungary is allowed to blossom, Poland will follow suit, and Hungarian minorities in Slovakia and Rumania will start agitation too. This could get really, really ugly when the strongmen in Bucharest and Prague panick ...
