Exactly; especially in terms of stress—which is a major problem with my chronic illness, and both the main reason I'm happy to be away from a W-2, but also the thing that makes me most nervous as I'm dependent on marketplace healthcare (which is quite expensive for much worse benefits), and it's harder to get things like life/disability insurance as an independent.

Being a top YouTube producer is not without stress : Reacting to the change in number of followers, responding to comment that can be unpolite, managing sponsors...