yes it's really something unexpected, I knew that for free it gets more downloads but not even 1000x, I understood if it was a AAA that cost 60+ but also considering that the price is only 1 for me it's something that doesn't make much sense..
however it's day one here too so it's probably on "recently released demos" or something like that, it will definitely decrease over the next few days, I don't know yet if it actually gives more exposure to the whole game or if it's ultimately just something separate. .
It's true that if something free gets so much more chances that people play it, it explains the microtransition issue perfectly, but I'm not going to do something like that. I would also put it for free so that everyone actually plays it, but if it's not with microtransitions how is it possible to make a profit if the price is 0?..