How do you stop free user requests from ruining your core product experience?

We learned the hard way that free users and paying customers want totally different things. Free users usually ask for dozens of features to avoid buying other tools while paid customers just want speed and simplicity.

After wasting months on a feature that non-paying users demanded we tagged support feedback by payment history. Focusing mostly on paid requests cut our user drop-off in half and saved us tons of dev time.

Do you separate paid feedback from free user suggestions before deciding what to build next?