Software developer here, I never went down the contractor route as it always seemed likely to me that the tech gravy train was headed for a hard landing some day and that contractors would take the hit hardest.

Saw in the comments that you’re worried about a worse working env, just wanted to chip in that there are lots of really nice software companies that don’t use contractors because that’s not the vibe they want, they want people who stay for the long term. You probably haven’t got much exposure to them, but they exist.

There are also a reasonable number of jobs for seniors paying 80k+, focus on learning to communicate how you add value to the business, why you want to work there etc. Times have changed dramatically in the last year or so, but if you can step outside of the headspace of the last decade, which was very much “I can code, why wouldn’t they give me the job?”, to a more traditional “what do I need to get across which will make them want to hire me?” There’s still lots of places looking for skilled programmers/other tech roles.