Risk and reward..
If free-roll is huge number of entries, fairly small starting stack, you are almost required to go all in and make crazy betting moves, just to get the stack necessarily to get deeper in the tourney. So super loose play is to be expected, it's the way it is.
Other freerolls, with a more limited number of entries, where the number of entrants isn't as huge, it is a real game, it's not all luck. There is a general template to follow to play well in huge free-rolls and small free-rolls.
I prefer smaller free-rolls, but you have to be lucky in any of them to be successful.