It looks like a good chunk of the reason for changecontentmodel being a restricted right in general is because the main other content models involve technical stuff that can introduce some scary security things. In this case, however, we're creating/switching between content content models, as opposed to different technical things.

Thus in this case, any given user and their dog should be able to make/unmake hubs and lists if they're allowed to edit and create stuff in the relevant namespace at all.

Unclear where it's actually being blocked - probably it isn't just the extension (though CK does check the right too before showing the options), as we are largely shelling out to core to actually do the stuff (duh), which probably has its own permissions checks... can these be changed/overridden at all?