mutual funds vs xeqt. Did I make a mistake?

I (23M) grew up in the early 2000s and I think developed a more risk adverse mindset because of that. Fresh off the dot com bubble and then the housing crash. My parents taught me to be very cautious with my money. When I learned about investing at 8, I would only invest in GICs to match inflation.

Eventually I moved to a bmo 60/40 mutual fund cautious of a recession around age 16. It was just what my family saying to me.

I now realize that I'm a child and have 30-40 years till retirement and can definitely shelter more risk. But I wonder if I made a mistake by not switching from mutual funds earlier. The bmo mutual fund (bmo balanced etf portfolio series A) in question returned ~34% over the past 5 years. The equivalent etf would be xbal. Which returned about 31%.

The fund had a mer of 1.7% which I now realize is crazy. But despite that. It still returned more than xbal. Unless I've read something wrong. So was it a mistake not switching to X___ earlier, or does it not matter.

Is the distain towards mutual funds oversold?