There is a principal agent problem between managers and shareholders. Managers get paid out of shareholders' pockets. If the shareholders are over-focused on fees as a metric, which they often are, managers have some potential tools (which I went into) to launder part of the fees into poor fund performance. I'm just throwing it out there, I'm not saying it is actually going on.
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As for proxy voters choosing the management, proxy vote research usually doesn't make sense. You see strategies amongst large hedgefunds like this: keep their valuable proxy vote research private, make a vote based on the most predictable-to-them-but-not-to-you outcome based on the research (positive or negative for the company, doesn't matter unless it will be picked up by others immediately, even then they can do things like exiting their position through an obscure hedge), and then hold or sell their shares based on the overall vote outcome and its implications in the research.
Researching and making proxy votes out of naive benign interest of the company is often just doing altruistic work for a greater collective, something markets frown on and usually punish.
Sure, but it still makes it harder for managers to screw the shareholders, especially when compared to funds like ishares where there is no accountability.
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As for proxy voters choosing the management, proxy vote research usually doesn't make sense. You see strategies amongst large hedgefunds like this: keep their valuable proxy vote research private, make a vote based on the most predictable-to-them-but-not-to-you outcome based on the research (positive or negative for the company, doesn't matter unless it will be picked up by others immediately, even then they can do things like exiting their position through an obscure hedge), and then hold or sell their shares based on the overall vote outcome and its implications in the research.
Researching and making proxy votes out of naive benign interest of the company is often just doing altruistic work for a greater collective, something markets frown on and usually punish.