And yet, the index itself (not even the funds) reliably beats the overwhelming majority of active traders over almost any time window you care to look at.
That is typically due to low fees though, and not something that is inherently due to it being an index.
Hint: The people constructing the index are doing as much of an active choice of stocks as the active traders are. Nothing stops a trader from selecting stocks following the same strategies as how an index is selected.
I'll admit it's looking for a needle in haystack though. In all my looking I've only found these three. Really just VHT and POGRX, since the success of BRK (Warren Buffett's company) is common knowledge.