Your argument is exactly what Michael Green talks about [1]. The talk I linked is from January of this year and he basically predicted the exact crash we saw in February. Individual stocks were going up and down tracking the S&P 500 exactly, based on no news or any kind of information, just that they were in the S&P index. The price of the stock did not reflect the company's financials or outlook. We're about to see this when Tesla gets added to the S&P 500 - funds will be required to purchase Tesla stock at any price.
The reason that I'm personally an index fund skeptic is that I like to understand what I'm invested in. If you look through the S&P 500 members, there's dozens to hundreds of companies basically no one's ever heard of, and companies that I personally don't see a big future in. If index funds didn't exist, why would I take $100 of Fifth Third Bancorp or TechnipFMC when I could get $100 of Apple or Slack instead? The former is what you get when you invest in the S&P, while the latter are products I use everyday, and I feel that I understand how they make money.
If you hang around investing subreddits long enough, it starts to feel like everyone's parroting the same 5 sentences about expense ratios and diversification, with no analysis or critical thought put into what the actual investments are.
> If index funds didn't exist, why would I take $100 of Fifth Third Bancorp or TechnipFMC when I could get $100 of Apple or Slack instead?
Because you don't know which one will become the next Apple or Slack and will invest before they are valued as the next Apple or Slack benefiting from all their growth. Some of them will die, but the effect on the overall holdings will be small given their small size.
The reason that I'm personally an index fund skeptic is that I like to understand what I'm invested in. If you look through the S&P 500 members, there's dozens to hundreds of companies basically no one's ever heard of, and companies that I personally don't see a big future in. If index funds didn't exist, why would I take $100 of Fifth Third Bancorp or TechnipFMC when I could get $100 of Apple or Slack instead? The former is what you get when you invest in the S&P, while the latter are products I use everyday, and I feel that I understand how they make money.
If you hang around investing subreddits long enough, it starts to feel like everyone's parroting the same 5 sentences about expense ratios and diversification, with no analysis or critical thought put into what the actual investments are.
[1] https://youtu.be/x-rJciYZmi0