It is absolutely free climbing- just not free soloing. It is free climbing because the rope is only there for safety, not to help pull the climber up the wall.
Discussion
If the rope were pulling someone up the wall, it wouldn't be climbing at all. So this vernacular structure doesn't really make sense.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The rope is usually always there to catch the climber, but in Aid Climbing it can sometimes be used to aid the climber in getting up the wall. Pitons are driven into cracks and used to pull the climber high enough to drive the next piton, hooks attached to webbing loops are hooked onto small edges in the rock and the climber stands up in those to reach the next small ledge. It is about getting up the wall, not about doing it in a particular way, and some walls which could never be free climbed can be ascended this way.
Interesting. Thanks for the information!