I've done it both ways and what's happening right now is (a) all those who couldn't get published the Old Way have gone ahead and flushed their manuscripts into the market, and (B) most of those published under the Old Way are leaving the Old Way as fast as they can.
"Indie" will rapidly become meaningless because within two years 99 percent of the available books will be indie, simply because they will swamp the Old-Way books.
If you're in Group (A), you probably will never know if you are a bad writer, and even some bad writers are making a ton of money. If you are in (B), you probably have a heads-up because your publisher has been forcing you to do your own marketing.
Really, it's not that hard to tell an achingly bad indie book, because it usually reveals itself in the product description (which is written by the author). Just read the description and see if you want to put up with that author for 300 pages. After that, heck, it's only 99 cents in most cases.
Scott
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