I'm not talking about IBM, I'm talking about most individuals doing consulting.
"Clients by and large are fine with it." --Only big companies are fine with it. If you're a web designer for local business, they would not be fine with it.
So "clients worth having" = big companies managed by people who don't have the expertise to judge your work who also act as if they're sitting on top of an endless pool of money which they sprinkle around freely because it's not even theirs.
I can see the attraction in that. I've seen it up close. It's not worth selling your soul for. Broken systems that lack accountability will destroy your soul, one way or another. You might even be warm, fat, and happy all the while it's happening.
There are a huge, huge number of clients who are neither sclerotic BigCo nor the corner bakery.
My typical client has less than 30 employees, the ability to react to issues fairly quickly by the standards of large corporations (i.e. squash a consequential bug in minutes, do a complete site revamp in weeks), more than enough money to pay any conceivable consulting rate for something with predictable ROI.
I think that "web designer for local business" has finally become doable. I have a few customers where I just resell Wufoo + Weebly or Word Press, at a 25-50% markup. There's no custom code to maintain on my part, and if they ask for features which these platforms can't do, I just say no.
"Clients by and large are fine with it." --Only big companies are fine with it. If you're a web designer for local business, they would not be fine with it.