If something is expensive, you ask yourself "what justifies this price", with the expectation of greater quality, features, stability, support or whatever. If

If something is expensive, you ask yourself "what justifies this price", with the expectation of greater quality, features, stability, support or whatever. If something is free, you also ask "what justifies this price", but this time you expect things to be missing, flawed, incomplete, contains viruses, etc. You're instantly looking for whats wrong, not whats great. So, yeah, pricing is a signal.