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This seems an oversimplification. In my mind, a rule-based international order became beneficial around World War one, when it became apparent that large-scale conflicts between industrial powers were now massively net negative.
The US co-opted that concept in their hegemony. Never completely, as the Western hegemon there was always an element of "rules for thee, not for me". Still, the US empire was build partly from soft power (with some chunks of colonial conquests, of course). But at least in Europe and parts of Asia, the deal that they offered (free trade, at least some token effort towards democracy, refraining from breaking the pax Americana and accepting McDonalds) was pretty sweet compared to what other superpowers had offered, historically.
I like the concept of a RBO. It tremendously improved the quality of life in Europe, compared to what we had before. I see the US as a somewhat ambiguous ally to the RBO, though. In Europe, they did good, elsewhere they often made big messes by ignoring the principles of the RBO (say, GWB in Iraq). My overall impression is that most of their gambles to ignore the RBO did not pay off. The key allies of the US are for the most part not countries they conquered and turned into colonial puppet regimes, but countries whose alliance they secured through a soft power approach (which includes the former Axis powers, of course).
I would like to see a future where wars of conquest do not pay for themselves, neither for the US, nor for anyone else. One way to punish defectors is to arm their victims, so that they will not gain a quick, painless victory. From this (admittedly cynical) perspective, the Ukraine war has been a great success: Putin's "special military operation" has been turned into a long war of attrition, caused a depletion of his Soviet stockpiles and so on.
Isn't Japan the clear former Axis power who got "conquered and turned into colonial puppet regimes"? "Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers" is a dictatorial position held by American, basically a colonial governor
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