I've been freelancing for 20+ years. Probably not in the same direct field however.
- I never want to hire employees.
- I detest having to subcontract work and prefer to do it myself.
- I never want to build a "company/studio".
- I never want to work more than 30-40 hrs per week. However, if there's a plethora of work, I have been known to in order to keep clients happy. Most often, I put in 20-30hrs a week tops.
Everything you want is possible via freelancing. I'm not implying it is always easy, but it is possible.
Everything is dependent upon building a stable, reliable, and repetitive client base.
Finding good clients who constantly need more work can take some time (and luck). However, once you reach that plateau, things rarely tend to drop again. I avoid contract work.. I am free to work for anyone at any time and no single client has any contractually committed portion of my time. I also avoid the "one-and-done" clients. I want clients with continuing needs who are as vested in remaining current and updating projects as they are in the inception of projects.
That being posted, 2022 was a struggle... after the pandemic many clients were in "recovery mode". While I had no issues during the pandemic, the year afterwards was probably my toughest year to date. But now, in 2023, things are ramping back up to normal, steady streams of income.
One just has to prepare for lean times rather than "spending the paycheck" as soon as you get it. I have a mortgage and commitments.. I haven't been considered "young" for some time. :)
I'd wager that much of the struggle today, would be the pandemic recovery many business find themselves facing. The pandemic actually taught many smaller companies that they could hire in-house staff - which merely works remotely. So.. client acquisition is a bit tougher today than it was 3 years ago. But the clients are out there.