Whenever people are talking about problems in trad pub, I see self publishing get brought up as an alternative.

Often either as a sort of magic band aid for trad pub problems OR as something completely inferior and impractical. I disagree with both stances. There are challenges associated with self pub.

It doesn't have the distribution or marketing of trad pub, and it requires a lot of effort from the author. Often upfront money for things like editing/design, although I've known authors who've worked around this.