I think this is a good point. It would be interesting to consider the reverse. Instead of becoming a full-time investor, becoming a no-time investor and sticking with an index.
But depending on the portfolio size even a small alpha could mean a good hourly salary.
ASML has been spun out of Philips so not really from scratch, but it is a great company.
This is true.
But would you rather have ASML/SAP/Inditex or Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, Amazon, Tesla and so on?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-23/company-earnings-guidance-is-wrong-about-70-of-the-time
Their forecast are simply bad. I believe there should be a lot of academic literature on this topic.