Geni Basic, sending messages and collaborators

There is no such limitations for Basic users.
In what situation did you conclude that you could not?

The limitation you probably hit is that you cannot open profiles in your search result if not collaborating with a manager, but you can bypass that by using Google to search.

Another limitation everyone have is the list of names the system search in when manually typing a name when creating a new message, tagging profiles to documents and photos or using the @ option in discussions.

That short list is loaded together with the web page and contains of a collection of the ten last visited profiles, come collaborators, family members and followed profiles. To bypass that list you enter the profile-ID and hit Search more.

Private User - first (only) message I see is yours - so this may not be 100% what was being discussed -
but possibly it is--
for all Users, we do a Geni-Search, Geni pulls up a list of names - and for Claimed Profiles, one of the options shown is "Send Message", for Unclaimed, one of the options shown is "Contact Profile Manager"

For Pro, when we click on "Send Message" or "Contact Profile Manager" we get to send a message -

When a Basic Member clicks "Send Message" or "Contact Profile Manager", they often get an Ad For Pro!!
(believe they get the Ad unless the Profile is a Profile they have the right to edit - tho back when I was Basic I got the message even sometimes for Profiles I had the right to edit - for example when they were outside my Max Extended Family but managed by someone within it - not sure if that was bug that was fixed, or still the case)

As I said: In Geni search results you only can access the result if you are collaborating with one of the managers if a basic user.

Above, you phrased it as - "you cannot open profiles in your search result if not collaborating with a manager" - to Open the Profile from Search, a Pro clicks on the blue name -- this is not the same as clicking on "Send Message" or "Contact Manager" - both of the latter ALSO work directly from Search for a Pro, not for a Basic Member. You may see these two as the same function as 'Open Profile', but I think of them as separate. (so sorry if I seemed to be belaboring what you thought you had already said. In case there are any others who interpreted it as I did, perhaps I have clarified for them.)

Also - re: "you cannot open profiles in your search result if not collaborating with a manager" - Supposedly they were going to have it so you could access any you could edit. - do not know if they ever got this completely working or not. But they definitely had it so you could access the results if the Profile was a Private one in your Max Extended Family - even if you were not collaborating with the manager. Have they changed that again --- or were you just talking about Public Profiles??

As a basic user: Don't use Geni search if you want to avoid the pay-wall, - Google have better access to public profiles than a registered Geni user, so just use Google to search for profile, and Google even handle searching for locations. Prefix your Google search with site:geni.com/people