Interesting, thanks for sharing.
My father was also an amateur photographer who went professional - doing lots of weddings and events. He got quite frustrated with that too, even though this was back in the 70s. Even then, the customer usually had a strong view about what they wanted, which gave him little leeway to be creative - much as you describe. He also found getting paid at the end of the job really difficult, so much so the combination forced him to give it up, and that pretty much killed his love too. Sold most of his cameras and lenses and all his darkroom equipment.