You talk about still different things, like resilience.

The idea, a business owner must be "independent" refers to them being financially independent regarding their income streams relative to "dependent" employees.

That doesn't necessarily hold true in all cases, it's an over-generalization to begin with. But it also is independent from your "lower end of the spectrum": you can be disabled and own a business. And demands of disabled people aren't worth less?

So, (in)dependence is context-dependent. Hence your spectrum. But the author's point is, it's not the same as (it's independent from) autonomy.

Shaping society based on vaguely defined/understood concepts leads to undesirable outcomes.