Exchange project are very profitable now that people in crypto are saying the future of ICO is on exchange which IEO is the next big thing to happen. Doing ICO today however may not be as good because if you notice, most of the project last year who postponed their ICO aren't even back yet to resume. Knowing all these, I think projects that will also not getting much funds or without softcap will have difficulties later on.
Of course, exchanges are what keeps the entire crypto market. Of course, someone does not like that high prices for listing coins ... someone does not like high commissions ... But the fact remains that exchanges are a stronghold of the industry.
Without a stock exchange, no one will need a token, and if projects dont pay for the listing, then they will not exist on the market for long, this is a common fact, but there are exceptions to projects where listing is not needed