Do you guys think free time is necessary?

So I've been mulling it over for a while, and I'm considering not doing free time because I feel like I just don't have the room with everything already happening in each chapter. The characters meet up and have discussions at all 3 meals, so it's not like they have breakfast together and then spend the rest of the day separate like V3. There's really only about 4 or 5 hours (in-game time) between each mealtime segment. I already have stuff to put in some of those time slots(for example, the protagonist and deutoragonist spend time together from breakfast to lunch at the start of each new chapter as a mood reset for the protag), so there's a couple spots left that could be filled with free time but I don't think it's enough. Also, it's a written fangan at the current point in time, so free time would be hard to incorporate. I was thinking of writing free time separately from the main story to be experienced at whatever pace the reader decides, and filling what would be free time with some little small group or one-on-one interactions that add something to the story in a way that free time doesn't. I have a few ideas already for things that were going to just happen in the background that I could bring to light in this new arrangement. But I'm wondering what other people would think, and whether or not free time actually matters that much to people.