"Right to speech freely doesn't give you magical protection from consequences of your speech."

You are correct. Money and power does it, though. Your boss won't get fired for talking badly about you, in general, but you can get fired for talking badly about your boss.

Yes, it's literally and explicitly a hierarchy.

Which is pretty illiberal.

No, but some speech is protected from consequences. Discussing working conditions is protected speech.

Oh I absolutely agree, you can view my comment history if you don't believe me. But that is not how Musk has framed his support for free speech in the past. Musk has made it clear that he is "anti-moderation", the case of things like banning Trump from social media with the reasoning that moderation is not free speech. But this kind of behavior is de facto retaliatory employee censorship. You can't have your cake and eat it too, you are either pro free speech or not.