You would have two valid interpretations. The consequences of one "thing" over another "thing" doesn't somehow negate the reality that both "thing" and "thing" are valid.
The point remains: Your GM has to adjudicate the rules in this regards if he is willing to accept your interpretation that it takes a free action to do, which if I must add is a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the rules (not RAW though), or the RAW that it takes at minimum a standard action to activate a single psionic feat, thus making it impossible to benefit from this without access to a second standard action.
For what it is worth, I would not blame your GM for taking the path of least resistance on this one, as this would almost assuredly never come up in any real game that isn't just a TO session.