I dont have the camera around my neck, and i also never have a strap around my camera since its like impossible to have a useful one with an R6 plus battery grip.
Yes its heavy, but thats mostly due to lenses and battery grip.
But you either have a good backpack or any bag you can easily take with you or at least reduce the gear you are taking with you(leave the rest in the car for example)
Thats how i do it.
I have a sidebag for quite some time now but i am considering going back to a backpack beacuse its not so one sided. I had problems with my shoulders once but the best solution is to think before you shoot and just take with you what you really need or want to test out.
Problem is i love to use prime lenses, so i have like 5 primes and one zoom.
I helped out a bunch of other photographers since I always also got help from other but turns out most of them were trying to exploit in some way. I am not doing paid work and still lost people due to this.
But I still try to help others but I am more cautious because of my experiences and that’s why I understand these photographers you mentioned
Another point is that concerts still have problems from corona and still are not paid as good as before, I heard of some cancellations because of to less preorders, and that’s maybe also a reason why you are not getting booked as often because they just don’t have money to spare. Also I don’t know your portfolio, maybe your pictures are not there yet but idk.
Good luck anyways.
Also from Germany btw