I mean, what we're basically seeing is this;
Yishan Wong, 2012: "We stand for free speech. This means we are not going to ban distasteful subreddits. We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it."
spez, 2015: Wow, that REALLY didn't work. So we're not going to do THAT anymore. Tune in on Thursday and we'll talk about what we'll do instead.
Does this mean your favorite subreddits might get killed? Possibly. But probably not. And that's likely to be good enough for an awful lot of users. More importantly, "an Internet with a front page that doesn't have a CoonTown is a better internet" is a pretty easy assertion to buy.
That's why the contrast between the quotes is so notable: "Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen"
I guess I just disagree on what we're basically seeing.