Original work has no floor and no ceiling. You can reach essentially zero readers or millions.

Cale is my signature character in the Forgotten Realms. The most popular character I've written. He's a thief, an assassin, and eventually, a priest who stabs his own god in the chest. Always trying to slip his past, but never succeeding. Dark dude. Brooding dude. Born killer. But honorable, still.

With young kids (I have four including the newborn) times passes weirdly for me.

I like to keep the world, to some degree, an implied setting.

Shared world has done some world building and brings (in the case of FR and SW) a big audience. With your own work, you're more creatively free. In a way, the shared world stuff has a high floor but a ceiling.

I enjoyed The Mirage by M. Ruff. I'm reading Edgar Rice Burrough's Princess Of Mars right and loving it.

The Disney deal created some wrinkles. I'm under contract. But I'm on standby.