Trust your gut.
If you can be responsible for Chev, and not let him get a girl "in trouble"... no need to neuter.
We ran into issues with boarding for us... our favorite place to leave the dogs required those over 6 months to be fixed. We waited longer than that for Denna to get spayed, but it wasn't an option to not do it at all for us. Females are different, though, too... heat cycles and all that fun stuff.
There are more vets doing vasectomy's for dogs now... in case you want to sterilize without losing the 'bling'.
As for the shelter lie... I think something like 50% of dogs are in shelters due to landlord rules and people losing their homes and moving to a place their dog is not allowed.
So... sure, there may be too many unwanted "oops" litters happening, but that's not the whole story, by a long shot.