>do everything they can to make you feel small and worthless. It's utterly backwards.
Backwards? That's a bizarre word to use to describe behavior that is NEVER appropriate.
Are you implying that the freelancers should be making the employers feel small and worthless?
> I wonder how many of these abusive people are "idea" guys?
Honestly, I have no idea what you mean by "idea guys" and the implied correlation to "abusive people"?
From reading your comment, it sounds like you missed the point completely. This is not a freelancer vs. employer or developer vs. idea guy situation, this is a simple case of narcissist vs. victim.
The situation can be reversed and be just as abusive and horrible.
An outside expert doing everything they can to make an "idea guy" feel small and worthless!
The point is not whether the employer has the right to push around the freelancer, or the respect you think an employer should have when needing outside expertise.
The point is everyone is a human being that deserves to be treated with respect. It is too easy to not consider the other person when working through a platform like Upwork or on the internet at large...This is a cautionary tale about the importance of remembering that there is a human being on the other side of the screen!