Well I certainly won't claim they will always outperform. 2008/09 saw very broad based selling. In that case there is not much you can do other than be in bonds. However, in 1999 most value funds did quite well as the stocks they were holding hadn't risen to bubble values.
Look, I really don't want to turn this into a debate over whether active/passive is better. Clearly all the studies show that passive is better due to low fees. I am just saying there are cases where active will win and if fees are low enough they will generally keep up with passive.
I simply wasn't aware that there was anything like a .26% fund so am trying to see what other options exist.