It's hard to debate because there's no reliable way to compare. Low ratio stocks don't cut it these days because of accounting quirks(assets may not be as valuable as estimated, amortization may overestimate cost of capital, one-time items, etc). You can look at value firms vs an index, but a lot of firms don't have the same opportunities that small investors have. Most 'value analysis' out there is crap because the underlying business isn't truly 'quality'. MPET was argued to be a 'value' stock at $2/share, and people agreed! What could've gone wrong has gone wrong, and it is now below $0.30/share. I see why value investing works well- they tend to be unloved, misunderstood, or under the radar. The potential pool of capital is enormous vs. crowded stocks. Some are so unnoticed that people don't see insider trading (my suspicion, no one ever punished).
Part 2 of my rant: before going further, I'll clarify my interpretation of what value investing is. Nowadays, the term is thrown in a basket of 'low P/E, low P/B, 52-week lows', yada^3. Imo the most recognized indicator of value: is this business really good at making money? Now throw in additional criteria like a strong balance sheet, shareholder-friendly management, and high returns on capital, you may have a valuable stock (need more analysis, like- competition, can they weather out bad economy, is there customer concentration?). Now to the 'investing' part: how much am I paying for the business's earning power? Analysis is a lot of work and earning power is almost never obvious.
Part 3: tilt based on potential flow of capital: small businesses that are quality have a lot going for them. They may eventually attract institutions as they grow and get noticed, investors with deep pockets, and momentum traders. They can also be targets for strategic acquirers, PE firms, etc. With crowded stocks like Apple and Google, it's less likely you can tilt the odds in your favor- so much analyst coverage, many institutions already hold full positions, and everybody knows their name.
I can point you to many firms and individuals that have beaten the market in a 10yr+ period, but everyone's just going to say 'survivorship bias'! and 'luck!' There are some people who put a lot of their predictions and analysis out there with the same value perspective as I. One is Andreas (Andreas on seekingalpha and Andreas947 on valueinvestorsclub ).