Clients generally don't care about or understand your technology choices. People and process management are at least as important to freelance success as programming or design skill. That much I definitely agree with.

I wouldn't describe my clients as hell, though--not by a long shot. But I've been freelancing full time for seven years, moonlighting five before that, and I've learned to avoid (and am able to do without) bad clients for the most part.

Way back in the beginning, when I didn't much know what I was doing and sold even that work way too cheap, there were some pretty bad times.

It just takes a certain type of person to be a freelancer that can deal with clients, and I am not that person. I had "good" high paying clients that were still not fun to work with. It's probably less about them and more about me wanting to control every aspect of the product.