I have seen an at least 10x variance in how people document their work in tickets. So 1 or 2 cents per "story" for some becomes 10 to 20 cents per "story" for others.

For me that just feels like a weird external factor. If it doens't bother you more power to you.

Maybe. I think the kind of people who do 20 items even when it only needs to be 2 are probably not freelancers.