Any ad supported service is objectively not free. No thanks.
Well of course not, why should it be free? Neither Meta nor Google, TikTok etc. are charitable Organizations, they are businesses with the intent to make money. Either you pay or you see Ads, or don't use the service, it's that simple.
For me it did require it on the Switch Demo. Maybe you were offline or in a country where they don't do that or something?