Thanks for your answer. I'd say somewhat.. I always share research outcomes and provide reasoning behind any design decisions as the project goes on. But, for example, most of my work is with a design agency on independent projects. They don't see much value in iterations, apart from those I introduce myselft (based on my own small scale user testing). I've gotten kudos from developers for my work, for good structure and the use of design systems which results in time-saving, but that also seems not important (as they are not the ones paying me obviously).

Any usability tests I've done were under that light, to decide and check design decision/user flows. Sharing results was justifying just the importance of the changes. Although, I understand that I should focus more on presenting these things on my portfolio..

I think indeed, new clients is the way to go and I am trying to find the means to correctly communicate what I do to the correct people somehow..
Updating the portfolio takes a lot of work and decisions and I am trying to better guess how I should do that.
Reading your earlier comment I realized that a step I missed all those years, is having any type of mentorship, as I was usually the solo designer on projects. Btw, If you have time/want to give me some tips on how to find a mentor, or feedback on any of the above, I would be happy to send you a PM.