I have been interested in and considered equal-weight strategies. They do have their risks, including risks of overweighting certain sectors, but this can be countered by selecting.
Also, while we are at it, “misweighting” by market cap isn’t limited to countries.
It also applies to sectors. The stock market cap is hardly always reflective of “economic reality”, however many ways you are going to define it.
A glaring example would large banks and financial companies, which - by their very nature of business - are more likely to be (and thus are over) traded publicly. This is especially true of smaller “developing” markets.
For instance, according to sector weights, MSCI Poland is made up of 44% financial companies. Now I’m no admittedly no expert about Poland - but I assume that’s hardly representative of the Polish economy as a whole.
And again, yes, that would be just an(other) example. However there’s just too many such examples to conclude that market cap indexing is far from the only sensible and reasonable approach to investing (unless, of course, I am striving to replicate this very market cap index).
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its advantages and merits. Market cap indexing through ETFs is easy, accessible, inexpensive, cost- and (often relatively) tax-efficient.
I’m still leaning to deviating from (pure) by market cap indexing, by diversifying my investments geographically and by sectors and/or industry. Though it’s harder due to lack of products. I am even considering holding my own portfolio of individual stocks, as I feel comfortable with.
There’s also sectors/industries that I consider unworthy to invest in. Like the airline industry: too low margins, too volatile, too many bankruptcies, too much dependent on political climate, government subsidies, too prone to being effected by singular events and incidents etc…
(To quickly add and make this clear: While my opinion might be straying away from conventional “mustachian” advice and therefore this forum, I am still very much on board with much: making regular savings and investments, a largely passive buy-and-hold approach, diversification and not trying to be too clever at timing or picking the market. It’s just a couple of things that I probably feel more comfortable to deviate from purely holding VT/VWRL)