>I can't understand how a competent, experienced developer with basic communication skills would have trouble finding contract work once they start looking.
Basic communication skills may not be enough, since you have to overcome the 'market of lemons'.
If there is a glut of bad developers (as you've observed), good developers will be penalised for that just the same - until clients are fully convinced that you are not one of the bad ones.
You've described a nice way to overcome that, but I don't think that is a straightforward process.
Basic communication skills may not be enough, since you have to overcome the 'market of lemons'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons
If there is a glut of bad developers (as you've observed), good developers will be penalised for that just the same - until clients are fully convinced that you are not one of the bad ones.
You've described a nice way to overcome that, but I don't think that is a straightforward process.