It's not about ETFs vs Individual Stocks, but rather Passive Index Investing (which is mostly done via ETFs nowadays) vs Active Management:
Spoonfeeding for you on special today (with some emphasis added):
I'm still not convinced. So long as there is a sizable subset of investors that actively manage their money, index investors can rely on them to perform price discovery thereby holding valuations to a (somewhat) reasonable level.
I consider myself to have no special competencies when it comes to allocating capital, so I'll happily take the average return of the market. I'll do better than the average of the actively managed funds net of fees.
I subscribe to the philosophy that it's just a matter of finding an asset allocation that you can stick to even when markets tumble. I'm 100% equities (except for emergency fund), and I'm proud to have remained steadfast to my plan through the Feb/Mar market dip.