My point is really that, while the index has served investors well over the last seven years resulting in investors pouring into ETFs, paradoxically it is likely that active management may, despite the ordure that has been heaped on it, now come into its own and index investors find themselves at a disadvantage.
You are of course right that investors who accept the old 2 and 20 scam - or for that matter performance fees - may do poorly. However, I sense these are on the way out. ETFs have made the customer king. The worm has turned. Virtue-signalling by managed funds is going to be in fashion while the law is going to demand they are honest to the investor about what he is paying.
They will of course try to continue the old ‘one, three and five years if we have to’ results routine but I think we all know the part played by chance in that chimera.