Can a free version benefit a product with a steep learning curve?

It is common knowledge that the way to go is always a free version, but I am starting to have doubts about it when it comes to products that take a week to learn. This includes all kinds of spreadsheets, data modeling software and any other kind of product with an initial learning cost.

Based on my experience, free users of such products do not make it past the blank screen and just move away from it. A two-week paid trial with a sample project may work better, since the person is already interested in it.

An example of the opposite is Notion, where users could meander around and discover its utility. Notion also had an active community building templates for Notion, which is a massive resource that most startups don’t have.

What I currently think: Free tiers work when the initial use of the tool takes less than five minutes. If it takes more than that, then a guided trial is more humane.

Where do you disagree? I would be very interested to hear about those who tried both and have some data on activation rates.