Free tiers are hugely impactful for the cases you mention where people onboard is the limiting factor for value not time.
I find the really interesting part about free tiers is balancing both how much of your user base is monetizable and how much value you give in the free tier vs save for your higher tiers.
If you have a product that is valuable to an individual or small team, but only monetize at 5 people, you will miss out on being able to monetize a large percentage of your users.
If your free tier is too valuable people won't be compelled to upgrade, not valuable enough and people won't be compelled to give the product a try or stick around long enough to see or want the value of a higher tier.
I think this could make a good topic for our next article. Would love to hear others experiences and thoughts on free tiers vs free trials!