Let's be fair though, when have shares ever been given away for free for any company? They shouldn't be, they can only be traded.
I use to be very hard-over on this perspective, but then I remembered that the 'founders' of a company always got their shares for 'free'. Bootstrapping a decentralized company requires a large number of initial shareholders. The idea of airdropping to create a wide initial user base is a great way to form an initial partnership.
However, if you have investors fund the development of a company then of course they should receive more than the airdrop users get for free.
In my opinion if there should be such an air drop it should be to churches, non profits, and people outside of the Bitcoin community so that it can grow the community.
I think the way to do it would be to set it up as a charity. Not everyone deserves free Bitshares, but if they are willing to try and help others or are associated with groups who do that then maybe a case can be made.
I think the Bitcoin miners at this time are acting very greedy to the detriment of the decentralization movement. I don't want them to be rewarded just because mining Bitcoins isn't profitable. I'm not against rewarding miners if Bitshares are pumped in the background (their cpu resources would purchase Bitshares instead of Blackcoins).
Someone mentioned Ethereum? I actually think it might be wise to collaborate with Ethereum and other Bitcoin 2.0 developers. Maybe give some free Angelshares to people who own Ether and in exchange maybe let Ethereum give some Ether to people who own Angelshares. Also there is computing for good (BOINC) which can cure diseases and reward in Bitshares.
I think giveaways are good but its important to do so carefully in order to grow your strategic alliances.