Are feature-gated pricing tiers hiding your SaaS product's best value?

We used to keep our core automation feature locked behind our highest tier, hoping it would incentivize users to upgrade from the basic plan. But because entry-level users never experienced that core feature, they struggled to see the real ROI and quietly dropped off.

When we unlocked all core features for every tier and shifted pricing strictly to usage volume, our trial-to-paid conversions jumped significantly.

For those running SaaS products do you restrict access to key features on lower tiers, or do you price strictly based on usage volume?