[kugelblitz]

I used to do "regular" freelancing, but nowadays do contract freelancing, which reduces many of the downsides e.g. I get paid by the hour, not by unit of work e.g. a finished module (because clients will usually be like "oh, could you add x and y, I'm sure it will just take a minute" or "well, I don't like the way it looks, so I will pay you for your effort, but only 60%.").

But yeah, the downside is, I don't get to "advance" to longer-term, more critical / central roles such as software architect or team lead. Even if I did, I would probably need to take a 20-30% pay cut.