Does the hive blacklist, a penalty imposed on voters for expressing their opinions, reflect a sincere and fundamental belief in the freedom of speech?

If by "blacklist" you mean the list of people who weren't given an airdrop of the new token, I fail to see how this has anything to do with freedom of speech. When someone creates a new blockchain and cryptocurrency token, they can give it to whoever they want however they want. You and I may not agree with their choices of who to give it to, but no one has any right to receive an airdrop, and it certainly doesn't affect freedom of speech in any way.

Between Steem and Hive, Steem is the only one that is actually engaging in censorship of posts and transactions. That's why it's so important that Hive "wins". Even though it's not perfect and there are many things to disagree over, it generally stands for the principles of decentralization and freedom of speech while Steem is actively going against them.