When BTC started, nobody had any and it was worthless, so it was right to give away thousands of BTC to make it popular. All that has changed. Now that BTC's worth something, now that companies are building on BTC, now that serious business transactions are made with bitcoin, it's about time for faucets to adapt.
BTC is real. It's money, and you've got to work to earn some. I hope all faucets will disappear in 2015. Faucets are hurting bitcoin by making some people believing you can get it while doing nothing sitting in your home. No, BTC isn't like that, and it shouldn't be any easier to get than any fiat currency. Even for small amounts.
Faucets doesn't give bitcoins for free, they gives you money for watching advertisments and through which they earn some money and gives you some proportion of it.
It is for free tho, the ads are there but you are not forced to see them or click on them at any moment, you can always just ignore them. If you don't consider that free I don't know what free is then