Airdrops aren't "free". You pay them with your personal information, which is much much more valuable in my opinion.
the word "airdrop" has been misused in my opinion and it should only be used for those that are really free like the fork coins or coins like byteball which gave away free coins to bitcoin holders.
so since airdrop covers a lot of different methods you can't say they are all "not free".
agree... back then, airdrop is a way to distribute premined coins to early adopters/users
we only need to give up a valid address for receiving some coins, truely free distribution
now KYC is put in place to avoid multiple claim abuse and ICOs are misusing the word airdrop = bounty
KYC requirement is also misused by fake ICOs to gather personal data,
abuser becomes target abuse