Officially defamation laws protect people's reputations from false and malicious allegations. That's fine in theory, but in practice it is notoriously expensive to enforce, meaning that the law really only protects the reputations of the rich. At the same time, it is clearly and regularly abused by those same rich and their corporate fronts to stifle criticism. It is clearly therefore a threat to our democratic conversation.
What would happen if we repealed it? Obviously, people could say untrue things about rich people and hurt their feelings. But they can always make themselves feel better by rolling in their vast piles of cash. On the flip side, they would no longer be able to intimidate journalists and politicians into silence, threatening them with vast costs if they dared step out of line and report on their dubious activities. Given the balance of harm, it seems to me that our democracy would be better for repeal.