This is a very interesting question and it's one industry professionals ponder a lot.

I think the answer depends on a lot of things. Like there are a ton of good reasons to sign with an independent label, but still it's not for everybody.

I would just say if you're gonna sign with a major it's not as bad as it might seem, provided you're really careful with the contract you sign (ie have a really good lawyer read it over), and as someone said before, if you can learn to do as much on your own as possible (like produce/engineer your music) it cuts out a lot of middlemen, saving you some money.

That's such a simple answer to a very complex question, but it's the best I can come up with. I really do hope to figure this out someday though, because it's a huge problem in the music industry.

Also there were a lot of good and interesting responses in here