Free games usually do not have a tangible financial reward and so it cannot be considered as gambling as even the player has got nothing at stake too, free games only rewards emotions and are used as reliefs at most times. free games are literally different from free bets, for free bets you must have been gambling with the site or the casino awhile before they will it see it as necessary to give you a free bet which appears more like a loyalty present since you have been using their platform for awhile.
The experience is usually not the same because with one there's something at stake and with the other its different.
Not all casinos give you free bets because you've gambled with them before, there are few casinos especially the new ones will give free bets to new gamblers, so technically it's a free games with potential to earn.
It's true the experience is different, no one want to accept to lose their money, that's why some gamblers ended up being a gambling addict since they keep gambling in order to recover their losses.