yes youre correct, free money IS free money....but i dont play ring games enough to even make a dent in my FPP, to me its absolutely uselss, i dont make big deposits, usually the minimum at a time, and only play in micro level tournaments...i just checked my FPPs and my bonus was expired, before even getting back a cent of my rake back....so for people like me, its basically useless
You keep saying "bonus" and "FPP" so it sounds like you don't understand what rakeback is, or you're confusing a VIP/rewards program with rakeback.
If you're talking about Stars, they don't have a rakeback program. Nor does Full Tilt anymore. If you're a low stakes/volume player on these sites, then no you probably won't earn more than enough to maybe clear the $5 Stellar Reward Bonus each month (if they even still offer that). To earn significant rewards with Stars you have to play enough volume to earn enough rewards to meet or exceed RB from other sites.
Rakeback is different. It has nothing to do with points earned (although typically any points are earned at a lower rate offset by the RB amount). When you get rakeback, you get a rebate of a fixed percent of the rake (actually an adjusted rake amount, but we just say "rake") you pay. It may be paid hourly, daily, or weekly depending on the site. There is nothing to "expire" and it's not a bonus.
To get an idea of what you can earn, there are a number of rakeback calculators
like this one, which
tells me that a 2NL player playing 2 tables 4 hours a day can earn $3 per week or $13 per month at 35% rakeback. For the typical 2NL
bankroll that's not an inconsequential amount of money, and as someone else mentions, RB is often the difference between a losing, break-even, or even a slightly winning player.
If you're playing low stakes/volume on Stars, then there's no rakeback program for you to concern yourself with. But if you're playing on other sites, particularly Merge or Revolution/Cake skins, then you can and should be earning rakeback no matter your stakes or volume.