There's two points here that I think are somewhat conflated in this discussion, which is kinda my fault:

1) asking more for your creative work earns you more respect with your clients

2) asking less when you start your creative job is a good / bad thing

The article and your comments are mostly about 1), and I tried to steer the conversation to 2). 1) is something I agree on completely - you clearly are getting a lot more respect from clients by asking a substantial sum and I think that the whole 'just do it for exposureee!' problem stems from a lack of respect.

What I am trying to argue is that even though respect comes with asking more than you think you are worth, I still think that for a lot of new creative professionals it is a good thing to start out by asking less or sometimes nothing. I disagree with the 'never' in your 'Never work for free'. Do you think you would have gotten where you are today if you hadn't done those cheap gigs earlier on? I think that to build a network, to become really skillful not just in your creative work but also in all the bullshit around it, you need to work on a lot of gigs. Nobody's gonna re-hire someone who asked too much for half-bad work, like with your menu for a friend.