I suppose its a matter of semantics, but 'easily minable' is not the same as 'guaranteed free'. Bitcoin's mining cost was always a function of hash power, hard

I suppose its a matter of semantics, but 'easily minable' is not the same as 'guaranteed free'. Bitcoin's mining cost was always a function of hash power, hardware and electricity cost (and competition). If it was cheap, it was because you were early. Satoshi mined from day 1, which is how he amassed coins. Some forks however played in a developed crypto space and wanted to guarantee themselves a chunk of coins that would not require them to openly compete for them. Does the difference matter? I dunno.