There are lots of people with great ideas and products out there who are not able to just up and quit jobs and move somewhere for months on end. It would be nice to see an option for people like this. Not everyone is single college student, what about established tech professionals with houses and mortgages, or even a family.
The free trial will always be there, the beta key is a temporary requirement, a gate if you will, and extends the trial period. Plans are not entirely set, the entry plan will be low but it is not a free service, it is aimed at business primarily not a personal blog.
Another option that is out there in beta now is http://trillsy.com. You can use existing themes or your own design, it offers more user features, multiple contributors or posting from the public and also has an post type for events with an event calendar. It is worth checking out, beta keys are going out. In the interest of full disclosure this is my service, sorry about missing that when first posting.