Not exactly. The always free tier just cuts you off if you try to go over your limits. It won’t let you allocate stuff that it doesn’t allow. I don’t really understand how they can offer so much for free, but my consensus has mostly been “It’s arm, and they probably spy a bit”. Which some people are alright with, some people aren’t. You can technically strip the OCI Agent from your VPS if you care about that second bit.
If you look at the email screenshot it’s from sdf.org. They’re pretty awesome and I’m guessing it’s just some sort of oversight. OP should just send them an email and I’m sure they’d resolve it.