ETF fee compression is one of those stories that sounds simple until you run the numbers. Yes, lower expense ratios matter. But they do not matter equally across portfolio sizes, holding periods, and product categories.
The right question is not whether lower fees are good. They are. The right question is where fee competition reflects real efficiency and where it is mainly a customer-acquisition tactic that gets offset elsewhere through spreads, product structure, or behavior.
FinTara's view is that retail investors benefit most when they treat fees as one variable inside a broader decision: liquidity, tax handling, tracking quality, and whether the product actually matches the intended exposure.