smerel, things were even more complicated than you describe:
Jews in Poland in 1920s had more fights between each other – religious v. bundists v zionists v communists, than problems from Polaks – who, newly freed from Russian empire, were busy fighting each other. You might even understand some of the “interference” such as requiring sanitary conditions in Mikvaos … Chofetz Chaim was pleading with Polish government to weaken this regulation explaining that Jewish communities were so poor that this will not lead to better mikvas, but to abandonment of mikvas; and at the same time, he was telling Jews to prepare to spend to upgrade ….
At the same time, going to EY meant to exist at poverty level. Part of that was that sochnut centralized donations in 1920s and started controlling what the finds are spent on, namely rural settlement v. cities (Tel Aviv). Their goal was ideological – acquiring land for the future medinah and it is somewhat difficult to argue with the success; but the side result of that was less manufacturing in Tel Aviv, and manufacturing was creating productive jobs, that could have enabled more people to come (esp from Germany and other rich places) v. kibbutzim that were gaining land but losing money.