He's surprised that you actually have to do something in order to get free money? And that tax payers require transparency about how it's spent?

I was part of Startup Chile and got into a VC run accelerator in the US, and bureaucracy in the US was much worse (Lawyers and accountants required for everything, incorporation as C-corp as a pre-condition, immigration acrobatics, etc). He may change his opinion if he has to move to a US accelerator with a $40k - $50k investment (just icing, as dashr rightly points out).