Some freelancers give a bad reputation to the community. There are genuine amazing developers but clients source to companies instead because of their bad experiences.

Things such as reviews and such don't mater much anymore.

Those companies are no better most of the time.

Welcome to devRant.

When I started off as a freelancer, I was quite skilled, but nobody wanted my services, even though I was offering them almost for free (to get some reputation). People were very skeptical when I was asking for even 7$ per hour. Once they saw how fast and easy it is to work with me (after a couple of hours), they usually doubled the pay just to keep me close for more.
Ah, golden age of earn-nothing freelancing.
I never had the patience to deal with that crap and raise my pay grade. Next time I'll try by working with customers that already know me or that really need something that only I can give.