He is partially correct. If you have an old 4:3 aspect ratio tv, yes. And yes, the early 16:9 HD tv's had adjustments like stretch, expand, and full to fill in the screen for 4:3 camera productions. It used to be called "letterbox" and the adjustments would make it fill in but distort the image - depending on which setting.
Every TV production now uses HD cameras (16:9). Even older movies on premium channels have been re-mixed to fill the screen on newer HD displays. Other than the very poor or the use of small tv's for counter-top usage, most Americans now have an HD tv.
We had a Mitsubishi first generation HD (tube rear projection) for years and had to deal with the above adjustments for some time. As HD camera usage became the norm, we needed less adjustments.
Side-note: We recently splurged on a 4k Ultra High Definition and the picture is so beyond early HD(1080)it amazes us all the time. Yes, most people can't afford them as yet, but if you can, it is like looking through a window. Ours is LG 4k OLED. Also, the up-scaling of non-remixed older movies is phenomenal. Any older movie that has not been re-mixed has the detail and color of any recent movie. It's like seeing the movie for the first time. Amazing!
Most theatrical movies are filmed in cinemascope or panavision and still have varying size black bars on top and bottom because of wider and different aspect ratios. However, the old grayish bars are now black with the new 4k OLED displays so you get used to them. The contrast is just incredible - blacks are black and whites are white and everything in-between as it was shot.
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We had a Mitsubishi first generation HD (tube rear projection) for years and had to deal with the above adjustments for some time. As HD camera usage became the norm, we needed less adjustments.
It depends on what you are trying to do. I also had a Mitsubishi DLP TV. I have never needed to use the "stretch" or "zoom" controls except in rare instances. If a movie is shot in 4:3 (Casablanca, Gone With the wind, et al) I watch the film in that ratio and have black bars on the sides. Same holds true for older TV shows. If I am watching a film with a wider aspect ration than 16:9 (e.g. Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia), I will have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The only time I use the zoom function is if I am watching an old non-anamorphic widescreen movie like a laserdisc or an old DVD. The picture will have to be zoomed to fill up the normal widescreen area and will probably look distorted.
I just got an LG OLED, too - 55” - and I love the colors and black levels on it. As you say, the up-scaling is also very good on it. The only thing now is I’m wondering if I should have ponied up the extra $$$ and got the 65”.