zengchen
as malbrecht said, it's a personal thing.

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I just want to say that self-learning is a life-long thing for everyone.

no matter which reason you start to learn houdini, even no matter what you will do in the future, self-learning is necessary for delving deeper in any field.

Definitely true.

You are always self-taught in Houdini. That's one of the main skills it demands. As I see it, Houdini is more of a developing environment than just a DCC tool, so you must develop a problem-solving mindset to use it. In my experience, every work requires one to stop and say: how on Earth can I do this thing? You will have to check documentation, see tutorials, read papers,... whatever it takes to get the work done.
Also, it is false that you must be in a production environment to use it. I work as a freelance by myself, alone most of the time.
And what do you mean by "the market isn't so great"? I don't know in the VFX industry, but we are overbooked with requests as Motion Designers using Houdini. Compared with what you can get using just After Effects, or even with Cinema4D, you are a kind of God if you also know Houdini. I dropped Cinema4D long ago because nobody ask me anymore anything that required it; 100% of my current work starts asking me for my Houdini skills.

KZLCR
team environment experience

Stick with motion graphics, probably specialize in distinct styles that don't require heavy rendering. This way you can solo most projects as a contractor with minimal drama while owning & enjoying your work.
This was a collusion I arrived at way too late, as someone who enjoys the work itself but loathes the twice-daily reminder of the origin of our species.
Definitely not too late for you though, good luck!