Since you mentioned midcaps, I’ll say up front that in the long run, midcaps give the highest return per unit risk…by a slight margin…versus large caps and small caps.

Equal-weight funds are going to have higher expense ratios because they have to do a lot more buying and selling to maintain their equal-weight status.  That higher expense ratio eats away some of the relative outperformance.

Their PEs are higher because they include a lot more shares of the smaller,  more expensive companies.

Similarly, yields are lower because of the inclusion of the smaller, typically lower or non-dividend paying funds.  This too eats away at the total return of the equal-weight.

The real caveat to equal-weight funds is that they change the sector weightings versus cap-weight funds…the sectors aren’t equal, just different than cap weight so you should look at the sector weights of a given fund to determine if that’s what you really want.

For example, assume that the weight of consumer discretionary is significantly higher in the equal-weight versus cap-weight.  Is a heavier % of consumer discretionary where you want to be during a recession?

Just a simple example of the complexities of equal-weight funds.

Also note that in the long run, large-cap equal weight returns are approximately equal to midcap returns and as stated, midcaps have the highest return per unit risk which, if you’re a rational investor, should be what you want.

As might be expected, in the long run small caps underperform on a return per unit risk basis:  their return is higher, but their risk is disproportionately higher.

Midcaps are in the sweet spot of growth vs. risk.