Waiting to become 'battered and bruised' is not efficient planning. Regardless of the ship condition, the situation itself required completely different handling. The ship is shown under rationing, traversing Borg space, being harassed by numerous hostile species [Kazon etc] and generally having to face seventy years of hardship. That is not a luxury cruise.
It was the love boat.
None of those examples are outside the purview of what a captain is expected to endure without massively losing their shit. The rationing was a non-issue, Borg space was traversed by Janeway helping them to annihilate another species (nice work), Starships are harassed as a matter of course. Everyone on board knew they weren't going to be traveling for 70 years so the psychological impact of that is negligible.
I don't see her dealing with anything that other captains haven't dealt with. The only exception being that she is cut off from Starfleet and the Federation (and that was only until message in a bottle). If she was under perpetual pressure then why did her erratic behaviour only manifest during the big calls. She was perfectly fine for all the other stuff.
The psychological impact is negligible!? The impact would be massive: potentially never seeing family/Earth ever again would be a tremendous strain.
While many starships are attacked, none have to contend with the reality that critical damage may spell complete doom even if they win the fight. The Enterprise can always send a distress call, the Defiant can be towed home...Voyager cant. One mistake, a destroyed nacelle...and they are in severe trouble.
To me, Janeway [if Voyager was real] would be under tremendous strain, unlike anything the other hero captains have endured.
