Farmers agents are becoming Semi independent

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on this. I have a Farmers agency for almost 15 years. About 5 years ago our contract allowed us to write outside business as long as Farmers declined it.

That seemed to work out better than they expected as we were able to increase our Farmers books by picking up new customers.

Now Farmers is opening it up even more to where we can write other carriers like Progressive, National general, Safeco, and tons of other brokerage.

The commissions are lowered as I think Farmers gets a cut, but I see this as a huge benefit and I'm wondering if other captive agencies are doing this?