Damn this hits. My dream is a solo firm where I deal with nobody. I’ll never get there of course because the world runs on relationships.
My experience, from knowing quite a few business owners, is that they are always "angling for the edge." They want to squeeze every bit of advantage, out of every relationship/deal they have. Almost every relationship is adversarial and competitive. Lawyers can be the same way. The best ones, consider every interaction to be combat.
I'm not wired that way, so I'm not a particularly effective business owner.
In both scenarios, it really depends on how many alternative options for income you have available.
As employee, it's all or nothing.