With respect to Matt Levine, the exact opposite is true. ETFs were a tax dodge that became embedded in the system. To get technical, Congress enacted §311(b) exemptions in 1986, exempting gain recognition for in-kind distributions for Subchapter M companies as §852(b)(6). At the time, mutual funds rarely distributed property in kind. The first ETF appeared in 1993, and the spectacular tax advantage is a big reason for its success. Given their popularity, ETFs are also given regulatory exemptive relief from parts of the '33 and '40 Acts. I'd argue this is like frequent flyer miles -- the IRS basically gave up on collecting them as taxable income because everyone thought of them as free.
Credential - I'm a lawyer and value investor @ https://lembascapital.com/ and I spend a great deal of time looking at fund structures.
PS Other smart mutual funds began distributing in kind once they realized this tax structure was sufficiently embedded. See e.g. Sequoia Fund, the famous value investing mutual fund (at least pre Valeant) - https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB921028092685519084
This is dead on. What's interesting is that capital flows strongly underprice this in late-stage companies (until they're 12 months from an IPO) and even pre-indexation. It's exactly why I started this - https://lembascapital.com/strategy/.
If you read any of SEG's quarterly benchmarks, you'll see that a company like Zoom really does stand on its own. You can see that here: https://softwareequity.com/research/