> The general advice is always to aim for a positive alpha.

On the contrary, for the past 20+ years the general advice has been to specifically aim for the alpha of zero ("just use index funds"), not for a positive alpha ("don't try to beat the market", etc.).

> No investor aims for a negative alpha, regardless of the economic climate.

Factors other than alpha are way more important for most people. Many retirees put a high value on low volatility or stability of dividends and are perfectly OK with getting a small negative alpha as part of the package.

Original hedge funds (before they joined a cutthroat trading jungle) set up with a similar goal in mind: a small negative alpha, but protected against the loss of the principal. And had plenty of wealthy investors who were happy with this deal.

Alpha becomes the critical parameter to optimize for when actively investing in times of turmoil (then a negative total return on a positive alpha on the down leg is a success). But few people actually do that, so few care about alpha.

Yes, but it's unclear how to intersect this with a reasonable tax strategy for many retail investors. i.e. do I sell everything and pay capital gains or sit?