I'd say, only option for caring about that is if we actually suspect that values of free speech and personal freedoms in general are NOT important for developme

I'd say, only option for caring about that is if we actually suspect that values of free speech and personal freedoms in general are NOT important for development: rather, those are the luxuries which we simply can afford because we're rich. And it's wise to press values onto poor countries to prevent them from becoming richer and thus a threat to us. The experiment of helping countries to become rich so they become friendly, failed on China and Russia examples: becoming rich they got only more hostile just because they could, so assumption that it's good to separate countries into friendly or hostile regardless of how is their economy going, and simply suppress growth of the latter, seems a wise one.