I don't know what makes you think this would be a "free tier"; it'd just in all likelihood be an even more enshittified, slightly-less-money-flushed-down-the-toilet-for-an-inferior-product tier. https://archive.ph/mwfWY
It's never just a "free tier" unfortunately. Most times these headlines pop up, it's "We're increasing our base subscription cost, but don't worry! You can keep paying the old price if you're ok with ads."