Yes

U.S. equity index funds have grown dramatically in recent decades, from a negligible $500MM in assets in the early 1980s to a staggering $4T today. The consensus view in the investment community is that this growth is unsustainable. Indexing, after all, is a form of free-riding, and a market can only support so many free-riders. Someone has to do the fundamental work of studying securities in order to buy and sell them based on what they're worth, otherwise prices won't stay at correct levels. If too many investors opt out of that work, because they've discovered the apparent "free lunch" of a passive approach, active managers will find themselves in an increasingly mispriced market, with greater opportunities to outperform. These opportunities will attract funds back into the actively-managed space, reversing the trend.

Except the author forgets one thing. The other option is justn't fundamental analysis, it's MAKING those companies actually more affecting - GIVING VALUE. That's investor activism.

Other key points:

the returns of the active and passive segments of the market end up being identical, equal to 7.7%.

the individual members of the active segment do trade with each other. But their trades are zero-sum–for every share that an active investor buys, some other active investor is selling those exact same shares, and vice-versa. Consequently, the aggregate “position” of the active segment stays constant at all times. Because that position was initially set to be equal to the aggregate position of the passive segment, it stays equal for the entire period, ensuring that the aggregate returns will be equal as well.