So my questions = (1) am I correct that the coinmarketcap 'free ride' is coming to an end or did I misinterpret this?
Where did you read that? it would be nice to know the source to see if someone here can confirm the info.
(2) do I have another 'free' option of getting this information automatically updated in my spreadsheet?
There are several CMC alternatives like Cryptocompare, Coingecko, Coincap.io, Coincodex. Perhaps you could use one of those to keep your spreadsheet up to date, check to see if one of those provides an API