You are wrong, there are many old and trusted exchange sites which list coin/tokens for free. What they check is the type of project and future of the project. For example Bittrex you can check more of them here.
How is he wrong? OP is asking to have a token listed on an exchange for free. Chances are that this token won't ever appeal to the more reputable exchanges to list it based on fundamentals and user demand.Also, we don't know for sure if Bittrex isn't accepting payments for listings. They just want to make it look like they are doing the ecosystem a favor by not accepting payments.
If you think about it, exchanges are profit oriented businesses and not charities. It would legit surprise me if they didn't still accept payments for listings behind the scenes. What people don't know can't bother them.
