Unfortunately, because there is such wide income disparity in the world, you are always going to compete against another competent freelancer who will accept much less than you. That drives everyone's rate down. I'm speaking primarily about remote freelancing jobs, which are the only ones I've accepted over the last many years.

Or more realistic outside USA: You will rarely found the customer that pay top money.

You can bet we charge less not because we want, but because that is the local rate. Sometimes we can score a outsider, but for much we talk about the magical properties of remote-worldwide work, even more if is consulting/freelancing, is very much about local + native language.

If you compete only on coding skills, sure. But introduce software architecture skills and you become a bit more unique. Throw in excellent communication skills and ability to configure and maintain a CI/CD process and you're rare as rocking horse poo.

Yep, for one of my clients the most value I delivered was convincing them NOT to move forward on a feature. I should remind them of the tens of thousands of dollars they saved next time I raise my rate.