Despite how the industry is, If I am starting now, my focus would be to learn and experience as much as possible by being a part of a serious dev-team. Getting into an indie team would be perfect because this is where you will learn the 'process' and fundamentals. You will be working on different parts of game dev learning from everything, everyday.
"Later if you switch to a AAA setting, you will be a 'small, yet vital part of a big machine', working with much larger fully funded teams filled with seasoned devs. With freelance, although it pays well, I would personally not prefer it because as an external contractor I don’t really get the 'sense of ownership' on the projects I am working on.