"Is turning curation into a free market a bad thing?"

Ackshually... It is.

A society is more than an economy. Given the existence of folks that literally care about nothing else but money, creating a market for free speech inevitably causes freedom to speak to become treated as a commodity - and this demeans freedom itself. Monetizing freedom results to some degree in slavery for profit.

OTOH, it's preferable to being demonetized on ideological grounds, or being forced to listen to the speeches of Marvin Bush at gunpoint, until you pray for that sweet, sweet release only death can provide.

The market is unavoidable, so making it as free as possible is the best possible option for human freedom.

tl;dr Nope, it's the best answer.