Is adding a "free tier" actually hiding your core product-market fit?

We built a free plan thinking it was the fastest way to get user feedback. Instead, we ended up with hundreds of active users who never upgraded and kept requesting edge-case features.

When we turned off the free tier and switched strictly to a 14-day trial, signups dropped but active usage and actual conversion spiked. Paid users were using the core features differently than free users.

Did a free tier help you discover real PMF or did it just pollute your user feedback loop?