Managed funds are like any oteh product. They can be good or bad depending on use. For instance, The Americans Funds is a loaded family of funds 5.75% for A shares. So lets take a closer look at this specific family. When you have over a million dollars to invest the sales charges are waived. With respect to ongoing management fees they average .50 which starts to approach some index funds. Additionally when the market is going down a managed fund can rotate sectors to some degree.
What a combination of manged funds allows you to do is to lower the Beta of your portfolion while getting market returns. Less risk and same returns. Again you need to know when the products is a good fit and when it is not. To blanket all managed fnds as being either good or bad is a demonstration of a lack of knowledge on the products themselves.