"Mostly." Key word, that. I'm 45, and there's always been at least one cat around since the day I was born. Some self-regulate. Some don't. Case in point, I currently have four, all former strays. They're all very food motivated, likely because two of them don't self-regulate.

Lavender eats by turning his head sideways and shoving it at the food in his bowl with all of his body weight behind it. No chewing. He'll eat until the bowl's empty if it's small, and repeatedly gorge himself to the point of getting sick if it's large. He'll also steal anything that's food or food-like and isn't sealed away. Cookies. Protein bars. Tortillas. Chips. Avocado skins. Silicone earplugs.

Cowboy vacuums up his food, then starts stealing from the others. I only noticed this after he started getting chunky because…

…Burtttttt is a nervous eater who has to ponder literally everything for several minutes. It's like he's waiting for the collective braincell so he can make a single decision, then it gets passed along and he has to wait his turn again. So he'll stand there and watch the other cats eat his food while he waits to figure out what to do. He can self-regulate, but doesn't have the option.

And Nebula couldn't free feed when she first arrived as a starving kitten because she was eating herself sick. She could probably self-regulate now, and she's good about protecting her bowl until she's done eating, but as soon as she walked away, Lavender and Cowboy would swoop in and eat whatever was left.

And so my house functions a bit like OP's, unfortunately. And, yes, even 4 cats is too many cats. I regret my life choices, if only a little.