I'm not a lawyer. I'm just speaking from the gut feeling which is certainly influenced by my German upbringing where we have less free speech than in the US.

I guess, the more you restrict "hate speech", the more you sensitize the population to the issue and then even moderate speech will sound like "hate speech".

Apparently there is no clear link between hate speech laws and actual physical violence. Is "hate speech" maybe a release valve that can also prevent actual acts of violence?