From one individual user’s perspective - card upfront trials mean that there’s a good chance either (a) I don’t want the product but will be unable to cancel the account due to dark ux/cx or (b) I’ll forget about the trial period and begin being billed then go through hell to get out of it.

I much much much prefer a no ties trial, even if you restrict functionality, volume or some other thing which makes it not useable for regular workloads. It’s a trial, I only need to get a feel for if I think this will work for me, then buy or move on.