"The biggest issue with hourly billing is that neither of us knows how much the contract is worth until afterwards."
You still don't with daily billing.
I know with daily billing because they can only book me for a set of days in advance. It's not ongoing. We agree ahead of time on the specific days I will be there/available.
I would guess we do different types of work. Most of my engagements are at least a year long. I've been billing at my current company for four years this December.