Considering I don't need the backup and the kid control, would I get something out of Norton that I wouldn't get with a free one, like KSC or Bitdefender? Not considering Avast/AVG since the company history makes me unable to trust it.
I know it's probably a recurrent question, but the market changes fast.
I've watched the testing and evaluation of all the AVs for about a decade..... from all the different testers and publications... and additionally, I have access to some large-scale private test data. Three are consistently in the top. Those three are Kaspersky, Bitdefender, and Norton.
For me.... Kaspersky is untrusted.
I wanted to use and like Bitdefender... I installed it on several computers. But.... I found it to be kinda like Beta software.... kind of buggy. It seems to work well for some. And if it works for you, I think you probably have the best trustworthy AV.
Which leaves Norton. Norton is always good. Norton is generally low impact and smooth on a system. Norton continuously evolves... they were the 1st AV that was effective with ransomware and exploits (along with the two aforementioned). They recently added camera protection..
Generally, free AVs are making something out of it... ads or monetizing your data (*maybe* anonymously). I would not use a free AV unless my wallet was pretty tight.