>> I've seen places (indirectly, as customers of mine) where building up a single virtual machine on which I'd install my app and database would take longer than a year. Yup, the six hour job can stretch anywhere between two weeks or thirteen months, and that's dealing with IT personnel.

Exactly. So if I do a project as an independent with that client by definition I'll be just as unproductive as that salaried guy who takes so long.
On the other hand, if that salaried guy is a whiz (a small few of my clients are lucky enough to have such a whiz) at least potentially I can be a whiz too.