This all sounds good to me. I'd prefer companies that would give me the benefit of the doubt. In addition to what you've suggested, I also want to avoid displaying all the red flags (or minimize them, at least) that user "codegeek" talked about. 2.5 years unemployed and 10 years of relatively little progress is not a good look, and this issue is probably the first objective I must overcome.
With job applications, I will try out an A/B test with resumes. One of them with a lot of years pruned from my experience so that employers will have fewer negative biases about looking like a dinosaur or other related "laziness".
I also did that and it got people to wonder, in resume reviews, why my freelance content is so short given the amount of years.
I have done ~18 months worth of work in the time spanning from 2015 until now. It is sparse. So looks like there's not an easy way to spin this. I might just tell them I was a caretaker for my mom (which is the truth).
With job applications, I will try out an A/B test with resumes. One of them with a lot of years pruned from my experience so that employers will have fewer negative biases about looking like a dinosaur or other related "laziness".