The key thing with fees is that high fees are often a sign of a poor manager or poor client service. Vanguard can charge low fees because they have huge amounts of money invested with them, as do other successful asset managers. The problem, as the article points out, is that people don't understand compounding - and have been brought up to associate paying a bit more with better products.

I work at a successful asset management fund, one that looks after Vanguard money. The vast majority of our staff's pension investments take exactly this strategy.