Is there any example of an alright or decent player being given a free role "positionally" at a top club?
I don't know how you can separate the two. Not having positional structure always is at the trade off of your overall team shape. It is always a tradeoff (unless we're talking about swapping positions).
The kind of role you are talking about, there was another player who had this at Man United and that was Rooney, in particular when Ronaldo left. He was given positional autonomy because he was that good. He could help in defense, create goals, score goals you name it. That's the calibre of player you need if you award them a free role.
Bruno is not reliable with his play. It makes the tradeoff simply not worth it.
Free role literally means free role positionally. You're conflating it with luxury player (who doesn't defend) or star player (which is just completely different).
Rooney is a good example, although more so 2002-2007. After that he was instructed to remain higher up the pitch usually (except when playing with Chicharito). At various points in their careers, and to various extents, Gerrard, Muller, Zidane, Sneijder, Ozil, Deco, Gotze, Riquelme, Fabregas, Yaya Toure, Totti, Bergkamp, Cantona, Van der Vaart, Scholes, Coutinho, Odegaard, Griezmann, Kaka, Dybala, Mount, Nasri, Del Piero, David Silva, Isco, Litmanen, Oscar, Mata, Seedorf, McManaman, Van de Beek, Ballack. And no, before you say anything, I'm not comparing or equating any of these players in terms of their overall quality nor specific attributes. As you can see, theres a broad range.
There's a structure, he's floating around in the gap between two CMs, two wide men and a CF, dragging opposition all over the place, creating 2 v 1s, finding pockets of space, creating angles. Its literally just a 4231, with the 10 having more than usual license or tendency to roam. The 10 always roams anyway, its basically the point of the position, to find space in between the lines. He's not randomly standing upfront, or moving to the wing and trying to beat the full back on the outside, or anything that remotely negatively impacts team structure or his team mates. On the diverse spectrum of 10s, he's one who drifts more. Others dribble more, others drive forwards with the ball more, others push further up, others drop deeper, others are more static and play more safe passes.
It's not a reward for being the best player on the team, it's just a role that suits players who are good at finding space and taking advantage when they recieve the ball in space. You keep bringing it back to "he's not as good as X or Y" former players, and I keep telling you it's not relevant. The question is, do you play 2 DMs/CMs who can as a duo defend and build possession, with a 10 floating in front, or do you have one DM holding and two CMs sharing responsibility to defend, build possession and attack. And the answer depends on what else you have at your disposal, which in our case is currently Casemiro, McTominay, Fred, Eriksen and VDB.
You also have to consider what wide players you have. If you have the likes of Henry, Ronaldo, Salah, Neymar, Bale, Rashford, Walcott (you can tell by the large range in talent that I'm not grouping them by ability) who prefer to be higher up, and get in behind defences/between FB and CB, you're more likely to want a 433 than a 4231 to provide protection and balance. Although it's not unworkable to play a 4231 with one such player, Madrid had Ronaldo LW and Ozil as a 10, with Di Maria doing a lot more leg work at RW for example. With Sancho and Antony we have two actual wingers, rather than just inside forwards, and an actual top class DM in Casemiro, so I'm confident we'll have better control and be less vulnerable defensively without needing the likes of Elanga, Dan James or Lingard putting in a shift on one wing, or McFred scrambling around in midfield. It's actually now a team that can play a 4231.
