Let's all focus on the elephant in the room for a moment. Everyone here has agreed that the American Funds have performed well.

It seems to me the argument among us is about the sales load and whether or not advisors only recommend these funds to get paid.
Note: I say "load" is an issue because 12b-1's included, American Funds ongoing management fees are among the lowest in the universe of funds.

As humans with independent minds we're not all going to agree on anything and we could argue these items to the end of time. It's fair to say that if an investor wanted help picking out a portfolio of mutual funds they could do a lot worse than the paying a load for the American Funds.

All anyone needs to do is compare any of the American Funds growth and income funds to the Vanguard S&P500 index over ten years or more to see why advisors recommend these funds. I didn't say they're the best ever. I said an investor could do much worse.