for me yes! if we made a good research about the ico we are planning to participate then we can have the good ico and we can get free money from it.
I think ICO's are a very good way to earn money. You just need to be careful, read the whitepaper carefully and make a decision before jumping in.
I think both of need to read the main post once again, seems you are misunderstand the main question. OP thinks that ICO is an easy way to earn money for the developer not for the investor, that's why he said "free money". While logically if we talk about ICO as investor, it is impossible for investor to earn freely without investing.