Because all those things make it possible to release independently, it's still not easy. Marketing and getting exposure is hard, it's a totally different skill. With a publisher, you don't have to worry about any of that - you might even get funding up front.

Personally, I still think it's worth doing - I'm in that position, and although I'm having a lot of trouble getting off the ground, at least I'm free to follow my visions

But I get why people would do it. A slice of a big pie is worth more than all of a tiny one.

It's also stressful if it's not in your skillset - I've started using chat gpt to rewrite my announcements and such. Before I'd stress trying to put them together and focused on being clear and honest, but no one was reading them. I find it worse than public speaking, at least when I get on stage I'm too busy to feel self conscious.

The stuff I come up with using chat-gpt is a bit cringe, but at least people read them - sadly corpo speak draws people in