For what it's worth, in my experience the Freestyle lines are almost always significantly longer than the lines at the food/beverage carts. Though I was aware on my last visit that I
could get free water at the Freestyle machines, I
never took advantage of it because it was
always quicker to go to a cart.
Based on the long lines I saw at the Freestyle machines throughout my last trip to Universal, I can see why the decision was made to send those just wanting water to an alternate location. (Jessica Hale's explanation is bogus, just like most of the things that she posts in that group. I'm really tired of Universal's social media fails, especially in regards to annual passholders... but that's a topic for another post, LOL!) If I'd paid for a Freestyle cup in order to get the customized beverages available in those machines, I'd have been pretty annoyed to watch a bunch of people in line in front of me using the machine to get just plain old water, which they could have gotten in tons of other locations.
Just another point of view.