About free points: honestly, choosing a trait that give you more points, points that you decide to use to be "stronger", is ALWAYS for free points 'cause you're OK to play that trait AND you take the points for that.
The player want a hardcore game ? Take an aleatory character then put away bonus traits. Or even more, play a pre-beta 0.x build: no point, no farming, no fishing, no trapping, no foraging, no generator, no TV to develop the skills, no other town to loot water and food… just zombies (& no save).
So what we are talking about the hemophobic in the last update, is not a free points matter. It's about evaluate in points how hard it's to play this trait. My conclusion is: in the 41.23 hemophobic WAS OK. But now it's the 41.24, and hemophobic much more difficult than weight traits. (and, by the way, I go to the 41.24 released discussion)