I'm guessing you edited your post before I could reply, but my reason for missing the independence is the same reason you have for enjoying it. I miss being responsible solely for myself.
I mean, she's inherently responsible for herself in the same way that I am for myself, but not being able to immediately tell people that I'll chill out with them when they ask me because I've got to ask her about it first (my girlfriend's tricky, and it's not her fault; social anxiety is a god damn minefield within which she doesn't like being apart from me but doesn't like attending social events with me, which makes for rather... complex discussions on the matter of my being social) totally sucks.