A nice thing I noticed if that sometimes Playmaker players take freekicks even if they don't top the assigned orders in freekicks,
but if they do then they pass/give the ball to players that have Freekick ability (and in this case they often score).

This season I had also a Playmaker DC and it was useful in having less wasted balls from defense to midfield ..

So I think Playmaker ability is really useful also in freekicks and defense