Any wise shopper knows how to look for deals. I bought WSA for a mere $5. Eset Antivirus for $15. If that is too much for you then you have isssues. As far as sticking to just free. Only one choice and that is Avast.
That's not too much for me....but they re not categorised as free AVs.
Furthurmore,you can find lots of giveaways to use paid products for free(3 to 9 months)
Kaspersky,Bitdefender,ESET,even WSA you ve bought, have these giveaways.....so what?
Can any reviewer mention these options as free softwares when he has an article about "The Best Free Products 2014"?!!!
Regarding the second section of your post(Avast Free),I agree with you