I decided to self-publish b/c I got sick of querying. I got a lot of positive rejections, i.e. "Your writing is excellent! Love the characters/story/voice/etc. But it would be difficult to sell to a publisher at this time...."
Finally I decided, "Life is too short," and I went the indie route.
It was an experiment at first, just to see how it would work.
Well, it worked out well. I earned more in 6 months than the standard (admittedly, low) advance for books in my genre. And, unlike traditional publishing, my book stays on the virtual shelves.
I love not wasting time on query letters, on waiting for agents to reply. Even if a publisher buys your book, you usually have to wait over a year for it to actually get published.
Yes, I have to do my own marketing and promos, but nowadays authors have to do that themselves anyway.
I love being able to design my own covers, to change the covers if I want to freshen things up, to experiment with price points and sales.
Also I love the 70% royalty rate :-D Although actually I earn most of my money from the Kindle Unlimited borrows.
Everyone has to decide their own path. There was a time when I yearned to be traditionally published. Nowadays, I'm just thrilled that I'm not restricted to trad publishing and can indie publish. ;-D
DMac