[smeej]

This simply isn't true. There are LOTS of fields where you're more than free to hang a shingle and run your own business, even hiring your own employees, but not without the credential.

Lawyers can have their own firms. Doctors can have their own practices. LOTS of psychotherapists have their own practices. There's nothing "slow lane" about it for the ones who do it well.

But if they don't have the requisite credential, they get shut down.