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?