Of course you're right that I am misusing the word "free." But, I understood OP to be criticizing the deflationary nature of Bitcoin rather than lamenting a personal decision to spend his/her own bitcoin holdings. My point was just that it isn't a bad thing for your money to triple in value.
I never really understood this perspective. Suppose you had $4,000 worth of bitcoins in 2014 and spent $2,000 on a MacBook, you'd have $2,000 worth of bitcoin left. That $2,000 worth of bitcoin would now be worth more than your original $4,000 and you have a MacBook. If anything, your MacBook was free.
The government asserts its authority over you whether you like it or not. Any association with a private company is voluntary in nature. You can choose not to use that company and take your business to a competitor. It's not that it is necessarily "fine for a private company to do so," just that you have the ability to opt out.