I agree with your article and the benefits of self-publishing. I've done a mix of publishing to small publications and then self-publishing when I don't want to wait. I remember when I first started and thought big pubs like Start It Up were the goal and hitting 'submit' was my Golden Ticket as a writer on here, but when it was finally published it didn't get the major amount of views that I expected. I think in 2022 I want to do more self-published work and see where that takes things.