To be honest. I agree with you about 90% of the time. As much as it pains me to see the snakes that we all love being mistreated by ignorant owners, I just cannot bring myself to take in rescues.
The chances of the animal not having some sort of sickness, or mites is very low. I sure as heck don't want to bring that into my house with the chance of it spreading to other animals.
However, if I know the person, and its an exigent circumstance like they are moving and can't take it I don't see a huge deal about that.
Other than that, its a no.