There is, and has been, a misconception about the economics of free things for a long while now, this movement or ideology started from the premise of government hand-outs to the least economically developed citizens. When we do talk about the economics of free things(which is rarely) we usually associate it with the idea that it involves a regulatory central agency distributing the wealth amongst its people. However when it come to the free market this type of leniency is not available at all. Day to day people don't have access to stocks or derivative markets for example, and that helps to increase the gap between the rich and the poor(which in turn requires the intervention of the aforementioned central authority).
New technologies however provide an opportunity for this gap to be closed. When a technology is in its infancy the interest for its development and widespread adoption from the creators is big enough to try and exchange portions of the value of their product for market depth. Put in other words and in regards to token economics, ICO's are so desperate for the widespread use and adoption of their product that they will literally give away portions of the participation of their product, in the form of tokens, in exchange for network effects and market depth. We now have an interesting concept formed from this:
airdrops and the difficulty that this companies are going to have to achieve their desired market depth.
The question then is:
How could some profit from the economy of free things, and what would the reaction to this opportunity, by the general public, be?
What you have painted is a situation of an ideal economy where people are expected to do things for the benefit of the society in other to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor based on how they deem it fit but one the issue of airdrop most times it does not work that as selfish people have infested that area of development in this economy where someone who does not have any plan whatsoever to develop and make the token worthwhile just seat behind the computer, create something then push it out to the populace. What happens next is for it to be pushed so that it can be listed after wish the developer cash out at the expense of other people.
Again, the reason why I won't subscribe to airdrops as solution to this is because the percentage of the amount intended to be distributed is just a fraction of the total amount which does not solve the problem the ideal situation sets to achieve but also to still make the rich richer and the poor, maybe a drop that does not change their situation one bit.