They aren’t going to change you view on life, but most are pretty solid. I highly recommend pretty much any books in the High Republic era, particularly “Light of the Jedi”. It’s the first of the new era and it’s a great introduction to the setting. It’s all set a few hundred years before the movies, so the Authors were able to pretty much do whatever they wanted within the basic Star Wars universe.

Because reasonable moderation and common sense boundaries don’t prevent free thought and expression for most people. So the main people that look for “free speech” communities are wild extremists or people seeking illegal material.

Nope, neither were, they’re both flying reptiles in the Pterosaur clade. They did live alongside dinosaurs though.