I’ve known this lovely girl for at least 4 years. We’ve had some great times. I mean actually great times. She wasn’t my ATF. But she was certainly a very long term favorite. I truly enjoyed her company and liked her as a person. I still like her as a person.

Some of the ladies I hang out with are trying to book longer dates so they can see less clients, but still make the same amount of money. Or they're taking kissing off the menu. However, these are just temporary changes because of virus paranoia. And my professional girlfriends understand my budgetary limitations, so I'm exempt from their "longer date" rules.

You weren't and you won't be her friend, because that's not what she's after or maybe not with you. All you were was a business transaction. You'll need to move on and drop this "mixed feelings" you have, She doesn't have any regrets on how she decided to run her business. Maybe and I say just maybe she'll reach out to you but it'll be for the buck.

but what is it you really are looking for from us?

Let's ask the OP a couple of questions.

We have hung out together. And, yes, for free. We have even had sex together for free.  
She typically calls/texts to share some struggle she’s going through. Frequently, since she’s also going to school, I help her with class work.  
She is getting near the end of her schooling. So her transition into that non-provider career that she has been working hard towards is looming closer. And she has increased her school work load during the SiP since she’s stuck at home a lot anyway and she’s able to take more virtual classes.
So, the idea that this is a burnout symptom because she’s looking at the end of her provider career is also quite viable.
I have plenty of other friends to call if I’m stuck at an airport. So, I wouldn’t need to call her for help. But I have contacted her during times like that just to chat. She usually sends me pics of her various trips when she has downtime (not much lately, obviously).
I am not claiming she is an extremely close friend. But she is a friend.  
And she’s already contacted me since I fired her. She says she’d like to stay friends. We’ll see.
My apologies for not being clear as to what I was looking for. I just wanted to vent. And see if anyone else had ever had a similar experience. It turns out there aren’t too many people you can talk about provider friendships with out there in the world.
Thanks to you all for listening and for your thoughtful responses. Let me know if I can ever return the favor.

She used to be an AAMP girl.

It's hard when your ATF transitions out of the biZ.  I feel you bro.  You think there's more there since you gave so freely of your time and money.  Then you realize that it was all about HER and nothing about us.

I completely agree.  
However, this girl, while a favorite and someone who I consider(ed?) a friend (though far from a best friend), was not my ATF. We had some good and even great times over the years.  
But most of the mixed feelings come from the length of the relationship. Not the depth (pardon the bad pun).

LoL!

I will agree that you two do qualify as "friends" by the GaG handbook at least. lol

I was seeing a gal regularly, at a discounted rate initiated by her.  About six months later she wanted me to cosign a loan and I would not do it.  Next time we meet, she tells me the rate is Y, when it always been X.  I ask her why the increase?  She says the rate has always been Y.  

My feeling is that, and this is what I'm picking up but once you said," We have even had sex together for free"...that's a red flag. It just says something..not sure but I'm getting a vibe.Not knowing your age difference, I'd say..and maybe that's just me being skeptical but she probably pick up and your vibe that it was all about the freebie.....I could be wrong.
I was in a "unique" situation similar to what you're describing and WE both decided to keep it at a professional level , with a tad of friendship.
But don't sweat it...carry on

My rule is that I don’t ask for or accept freebies. I made the mistake once of unintentionally letting a girl think that I wanted more than a professional relationship other than just being friends. Not doing that again. I ended up hurting a really lovely sweet girl that, in spite of her protests, was clearly too young (she was 19) emotionally to be doing this for a living.
But we went out once together and ended up having some very hot sex. She wouldn’t accept money. So I took her to a store she’d been wanting to visit and bought her a few things. Even then she didn’t want me to pay.  
So, technically, the sex was free. The little things I bought her were nowhere near her rate. Though I will admit that I think I hurt her feelings a bit by insisting on paying something.  
Still, it wasn’t at all about the freebie. The relationship didn’t start going down hill until well after that.

I have a "friend" that used to be a hooker, that's how I met her about 2 months after her 18th birthday some 13+ years ago. She and I moved from being hooker/john to something more like SD/SB and then on to actual BF/GF for a time, and then finally to more of a FWB type relationship with a lot more F than B, we live in different states so it's kind of rare that we see each other any more.  she is almost exactly 30 years younger than me,  we have had a LOT of free sex and yet after 13 years we are still good friends.

I agree with one caveat.  
Age difference aside, I don’t think a hooker/john relationship can survive when one or the other “catches feelings”. But there’s probably an exception to that as well

They fall in love and get married, perish the fucking thought. lol

I know it has happened. Nowhere near as frequently as many (usually the younger ones) mongers seem to think (hope).
So, yes, I completely agree.

I will accept freebies, but with the caveat that when her turn comes up, I don't skip over her and will pay her full rate, as usual. IOW, if she gives me a freebie one day, and I have a professional date scheduled with her the next,I would get my freebie and then go back and pay her for the date the next day.

I don’t do freebies. People catch feelings that way far too easily.  
That one time she insisted on not accepting payment I took her shopping. I may not always get it right. But I try to always keep it very clear that, though friendship when it occurs has no price tag, I am not willing to commit to anything more.
When I insisted on paying her in one way or another, I saw that it hurt her feelings. But I couldn’t figure out any other way to handle it that felt ethical.                                                    

Roughly 12 years ago there was a provider that I saw repeatedly.  Over the course of about 3 years I probably saw her 50 times.  It was great every time.  We only stopped because she left the business (and became very successful elsewhere). I never asked her for free time, she never offered, we never got into each other's outside lives, never talked about being "friends", and we had really good sex. Looking back on it, that was a pretty fucking good deal so why would I have ruined it by pretending it was something it was not.

Never fired! Just ‘ran out’ ... two cases came close to ‘join lives together.” First one, I was the first mover, Second one she.
Both cases slowly ran out! Till today I think it was not me ...  
it was like having two divorces lol! without marriage. Both are super beautiful human being in and out! I hold no negative feelings towards them. Like sea waves ... in slowmo- it came, reached crescendo, plateaued, stayed there for some magnificent years together, and then slowly died down!
Not sure this was what OP wanted ... just sharing some experience ...

Perfect response.  

A lot of providers will "gift" a freebie to their regulars occasionally, but its clearly meant as a "thank you" for your continued loyalty and patronage.  One should NEVER read anything else into it.  As you say, the next day is business  as usual.

is why its important to put any freebie in context.  The vast majority of the time, she is just thanking you for being a loyal customer.  Read anything else into it at your own peril  

the personal dynamics are, as long as you break off the personal aspect amicably, "you will always be welcomed back as a client."  Out of about 100 girls I have seen on the outside OTC, all but one told me this when she or I decided to end the outside aspect of our friendship.  

I'm glad my ATFs retired and/or moved on to bigger and better things

"...Great fucking ladies."  We all know your regulars vanished on you.  Hell, their hooker names should have been "Houdini" because of the disappearing act they performed for you.  Just bustin' your balls bro.  

The only time this happened was with an UTR friend. We had fun for about 5 years. When we first started she had a bf, then was single (I had thoughts about making it more, as she knew I was seeing other women and did not have a problem with that, she even did a few threesomes when single) then she got back with her daughters father. That’s when she became less dependable, started asking for an extra $0.5 or $1 about a third or our meets, did not want to spend as much time together when we did meet and was losing weight so wondered if she was using drugs. I fired her, politely, and she was OK, never contacted me again. A year later saw her on a SB site. From her profile she had gone BSC, so glad I fired her.