This would be more interesting if you actually had some real numbers, not just making stuff up out of nowhere.

Hence why I said "imagine". But feel free to look around on the internet for this very topic and use some.common sense. You will probably arrive at the same made up stuff that I arrived at. 

I'm not so sure it does? Yes some indie games are free day 1, but it actually gets their name out there, and if people like their game. They'll no doubt look to buy the next one.

They also get a guaranteed exposure and still get some royalties as a result.

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Overall it's a publisher's decision, and the developpers have already been payed. Having more people playing the game means getting more word of mouth and feedback, so it's all good for the developpers.

On the publishers side however, well, it's up to them, but if they make bad decisions it's their problem. It's not like whatever free* games services blackmailed them into doing it or something.

It hurts indie devs. I would way more supportive of stuff like games with gold if it was only stuff from major publishers

It doesn't work like that. We've gotten to the point now that a ton of Sony and Microsoft fans sit around and wait for indie games to end up being free even if they have enjoyed the dev's past work. That's just how those communities work now and it's a damn shame because there really is no reason for Indies on the Wii u to have better sales than their ps4 counterparts. 

The few indie titles that have better sales on Wii U than on PSN are the exeption, not the rule. Often also heavily promoted in the eShop.

Hurting some. Helping others.. In general I think it hurts mid tier and high profile games and helps those games that normally wouldnt get a second look.

Well... Look at Rocket League. It no doubt got a tremendous boost from being on PS+.

I'm not sure that applies to most of the indie developers main target audience. Yes there are gamers who just get whatever is free now. But this is a similar argument to not seeing a movie because you're going to wait for it to air on (free) TV.

It's just starting to add tiers to gaming like movies already have.

You've got your early adopters, who pay full price (cinema goers/day 1 on Blu-Ray/DVD) people who wait for reductions (clearance bins or in gaming's case, PSN sale) and people who will wait for it to be free. (broadcast on terrestrial TV networks)

If it's altering habits in a way that across ALL gamers, less is being spent. It is harmful. But a few anecdotal "OMG dude I don't spend anything on games anymore" does not represent the full market and as we are seeing, indie games getting bigger followings, suddenly stop being indie by attracting distributors/publishers which can enable them to have a larger budget and more resources for their next game.