Mathworks has never charged for mcr. Versions from r2012a are available for free download.
Before r2012a, it was the responsibility of the the person who created the executable to make mcr available to the end user in a way that did not make mcr publicly available, for legal reasons. The person who creates the executables has always been permitted to charge for the executable, so there was no meaningful distinction between the executable creator asking to be paid for the executable or being asked to be paid for mcr since either way the executable creator would keep all of the money.
