After avoiding it for quite a while, I just gave a listen to a talk by a person who has turned coaching translators into a business, and my suspicions were confirmed.
The talk was about 10 minutes long. Roughly the first 40 percent was spent promoting a book written by the coach. When the coach finally got into the coaching, it turned out that what was billed as a talk about marketing for translators offered almost no actionable advice other than a few generalizations, and absolutely nothing that specifically addressed the ongoing demise of freelance translation at the hands of AI-using agencies. Of course, a person trying to sell coaching to translators is not going to want to bring up the ongoing disappearance of translation work.
To summarize the talk in two words: Anodyne nonsense.
This person is evidently making money doing this, meaning the level of credulity and desperation among freelance translators is more serious than I had thought.
It’s over, guys and gals, finished. Freelance translating for agencies is an ex-career. It has gone on to meet its maker and is pushing up the daisies.