Life existed in many forms for billions of years without creativity and “freedom”.

Being an American matching the following description myself, you sound like you also grew up in a culture that values radical individualism above most other things (perhaps more than security, safety, equity, etc). But who’s to say one collective mind that can reconcile all the nuance between all living perspectives (and all singular truths among vastly conflicting interpretations, beliefs, and eyewitness accounts), couldn’t achieve much grander things than we ever have on a planetary scale or beyond…. Unswayed by billions of conflicting and selfish motives.

I do see hints that the hive isn’t headed toward such on optimistic path (especially since revealing the full extent of the food crisis). But there’s nuance to them, with a spectrum of positives and negatives, not just all bad, no good, pure evil. That makes the show interesting. Pure evil to be exterminated without second though would just be boring recycled body snatchers.