It would be a poor business decision to exclude boot camp students from the upcoming student plan(s). That obviously doesn’t cover all types of learning/getting started though. I too mourn the loss of free, but also think it is the right decision for the times.
If you are on an older ronin or fugu you can't. But you can from all other plans and newer ronin/fugu databases. The limitation on older ronin/fugu databases is related to: https://devcenter.heroku.com/changelog-items/37
If you have any ticket links or more information about your problems please let us know, inexplicably slow should never happen, especially with a dedicated db.