I am glad to see your experience on Steemit. Regarding the term 'Freedom of Speech', yes, everyone has the freedom of speech on steem, but there are some common sense. See Wikipedia:

Legal systems sometimes recognize certain limits on the freedom of speech, particularly when freedom of speech conflicts with other rights and freedoms, such as in the cases of libel, slander, pornography, obscenity, fighting words, and intellectual property.

I think that is why a post can be flagged on steem.

What I am not quite sure about in this post is:

For me if a post can create comments and conversation around the topic they it is successful. And that exactly what the post was about.

If you are right, it would be fun for me to see that rumor and slander posts are the most successful ones on steem.

For the similar reason I started analysing the steem block chain data months ago. The block chain data is more attractive than other data because it is transparent and nobody can change it. Therefore everyone can test whether your data analysis is right and everyone can help you improve it.