Like I said on FB, I believe the best we can hope for on the free speech front is that some kind of geofilter system will be put in place, such that American users' experience will conform to First Amendment speech protections, while users in countries with more restrictive speech laws, such as Canada, the U.K., et al. will see their own Twitter experience dictated by their respective countries' laws. That's my best-case on speech, considering that Musk isn't going to buy an international company and then shitcan its userbase outside the U.S. by refusing to accommodate their laws -- for their citizens.
The big win here is, and I agree with you 100%, the promise of transparency in rules and the end of arbitrary, one-sided rules enforcement.
Or, put another way: Twitter will no longer be run like Wordforge is.