The free things you say are the "giveaways", right? (Free tokens or free money).
It will worth only if the tokens you are accumulating have potential and get price on long term, then you can see some financial progress in your life, otherwise they will be just pennies.
Someone could make profit from these "free things" by collecting, storing them and waiting for the right time to sell them or to exchange them for goods. A good strategy would be to turn this profit into an investment, something that generates income for you. However talk is cheap, but on practice it can be very difficult to turn these "free things" into something really worthful and profitable.
About the general public: They would try doing the same thing after seeing a random success story of someone who made profit with "free things". And when many people start doing the same thing hoping the same results, the exactly opposite happens...