Ideally, I'd like to save the world.

First bit of advice: grow up. Be interested in research because you're curious, not because you're special and/or status-seeking. Until the word that comes to mind is "improve" rather than "save" you will be looking at the wrong questions for the wrong reasons.

Journals might be biased against freelance researchers.

Oh, absolutely. If you want to be part of academia, you have to be part of academia.

It might actually be better to spend some time doing research under others before doing it on your own.

I would replace "might" here with "would."