What if during the sign up stage, you actually show the current price of the free plan. But then give a 100% discount for a certain period. Afterwards, you would then reduce the discount X percentage until it's fully transitioned into a paid model.
If it's all transparent, maybe that would make it easier for people to know that it's not free for free sake and plan accordingly.
That necessitates actually having a price point nailed down prior to accepting any sign ups. Some people (including possibly OP) get the ball rolling without even having a reasonably narrow ballpark guess settled on.
So I'm not necessarily moving from a free product to a paid product. It's from a paid product that was subsidized, to a paid product that is not subsidized. But to your point, I think the closed beta ran too long and shifted their psychology about the cost of the product.