I don't really think there was a need to make the hivefork as transparent as a typical hardfork. The secrecy for the hivefork was much more justified than the softfork secrecy.
Both could be defended by pragmatism, which isn't really a good justification in and of itself.
I'm not concerned that the hivefork was developed in secret. But I do think the hivefork completely invalidates the legitimacy of the softfork.
If instead of spending 9 days wringing their hands planning the softfork, instead taking those 9 days to get ahead on the hivefork while simultaneously talking to Tron and getting no answers, the hivefork would have come along, perhaps sooner, with none of the ideological compromise of censorship.
Anyway, that's hindsight. Hive is here. I think they might have nailed it.