You can still release independently and make whatever you want, you dont need to have someone else controlling your creativity, but i guess that's just the cultural differences. Sure, when making physical copies its almost required due to the entry cost, but for digital copies its unnecessary. If sites can have more content, with download capabilities, for free/donations/ads then pay sites can as well, even if it sells poorly a single sale would most likely compare to it just sitting there for a few months.