I appear to have kicked over a hornet's nest. There's a great deal of insight in most comments. My favorite is "There is no one size fits all." Which is part of what my original post addresses. When a process is automated, as UW has done with almost everything, it doesn't automatically create a "one size fits all" solution, but it does create boundaries for the solution. The solution must be found within the boundaries.
Just as it is difficult for a new client to understand where and why fixed price or hourly is more appropriate, it is even harder for a new freelancer. In those cases, the freelancer is almost compelled to respond only to hourly projects. Otherwise, the freelancer's risk of cost overrun is too high.
I had and have no intention of calling freelancers who do hourly work "lazy." It's always a case-by-case basis. However, hourly pay does in fact pay for input, not output. Scope creep happens in most jobs, whether the client and/or freelancer is new or not. It is indeed easier to deal with scope creep in an hourly job, yet that's not always possible, especially if the contract limits chargeable hours.
I am happy to learn from friend Michael that UW has already fixed the problem, I evidently was unaware of where the fix was. I do little hiring on UW, most of my default freelancers are offline or hired through another, less rigid, board. And, I just accepted my first online job in more than a year. My largest UW projects have always been fixed price, even the few that are technically hourly. In those cases, the client acknowledges eventually that he/she did not know what he needed at the beginning, is still doing some floundering, and I'm not going to cheat a client. Thus the client pays whatever I bill. In no case do I use time tracker.
I was glad to see that another freelancer pointed out to a client that hourly would be more efficient than fixed price in one case. That is a sign of freelancer value creation and professionalism. The client's interests always come first, and if there is a less-expensive way to produce the quality needed, it is incumbent on the freelancer to point it out to the client. Many kudos.
I fully agree that Preston's advice is always well-thought-out and valuable. My view of freelancing is not limited to Upwork, which is so small that it is not even a round-off in the world of global freelancing. In the much broader world, most freelancing is done fixed-price plus expenses. When the label-centric model of the music industry collapsed, a few pros were ready to begin freelancing their slices of the pie. A small business owner I mentor called me yesterday to say that her last employer just hired her on a retainer basis equalling what her salary had been to provide PR services for one artist rather than work full-time for the label. Vertical integration rises and falls in most industries over and over. It is during the disintegration phases that freelancing makes the most money.
