I think that, in general, paid games and free games both have their merits. It depends a lot on the games you play rather than the price, at least to me. I have a few free games on my android, for example, that are free or freemium that I don't pay for and absolutely love, and then other such games that are basically boring cookie cutters. Similarly, a paid game can be good or bad depending on your preferences and the level of development it's at. I recently bought a game that was in closed alpha, and I can't even play it mostly, so it feels like a bad purchase- so, that's another thing to be careful of.
Basically, my point is to worry less about free vs. paid, and more on the quality and type of games you like, because there can be good and bad in either case.