Thanks for sharing your experiences here, mksummny. Yours is a very interesting story indeed.
I am not one of the "old school" posters, but I will opine that the market has changed somewhat in recent years -- I'd say that it's become more efficient at the microstructure/very-short-term level. It's also become more fragmented (which is NOT necessarily more efficient, in fact I'd say less so, but not in a way that's easily arbed uness you've got captive order flow from clients -- compared with earlier years, far more of the order flow seems to be internalized and/or sent to wholesalers in payment-for-order-flow deals, which isn't really good for anyone except them, but I digress....) But if your style is a little longer-term and intuitive, it may not make much of a difference to you.
All the best to you, whatever you decide.