Current final year dental student pitching in here. While dentists of the past may push for unnecessary annual radiographs, the curriculum in dental school has changed to favour evidence-based dentistry. Annual bitewings are only indicated if you're a high caries risk, and, as the article mentions, 2-3 years if you're low caries risk. So your younger/newer dentist will be following much better protocols (and hopefully not scamming you)!
Kind of off topic, I had a dentist say “that needs to come out” for a wisdom tooth. I was of the opinion “it doesn’t hurt and it’s not even sensitive, so it stays in”, it was the only cavity I’d had in a very long time and I haven’t had any since. So we argued for 10 years over it to the point it became a joke between us. Well finally it became sensitive (not painful, but sugar and cold would set off a little pain) and I then had it pulled, my dentist was like “I told you” and I responded with “yeah for 10 years” . Is that a fairly typical situation?