I do not think the particular motivation for a crime should be too big a factor in anything besides sentencing. Because looking at your Murder hate crime example, let me fill in a blank.

Murder Hate-Crime: "I was then pre-disposed (given why) to then gradually plan (filling in when, where, and how) to then gradually plan (filling in who) to now kill X."

"I was then pre-disposed by the murder of my daughter to then gradually plan to kill any child molestor-killers to the plot specifically to murder Mr. X when he moved in to my neighborhood and I found out what he'd done"

This example was clearly a hate-crime, the murderer hates a particular group of people, criminals, yes, but I can not see a difference there. Many murders have been done to drug dealers by people who were outraged at the loss of someone close through drug-trafficking, they despise that group. But the fact that it happens to be a specific type of criminal as opposed to black, jew, gay seems not to apply on contemplation because it could also include "I hate pot smokers" or "People who sell pirated movies".

That actually sums up in many ways why we got hate crime legislation to begin with. The locals often viewed 'group X' with contempt, some applauded the action. Now, with that in mind, how would most people typically react to hearing that a drug-dealer got snuffed by an angry parent? Or the child molestor? They'd mostly applaud, or maybe say "Well, it might have been wrong but..." I have difficulty seeing a tangible difference in there, the hate-crime murders we think of view themselves as vigilantes in the same way the guy who shoots a child molestor does.