SPY is not the driver it is the QQQ with its big tech & Semiconductor stocks. It always amazes me that people keep advocating for SPY when it constantly underperforms the QQQ & SMH.
Only in down markets does SPY overperform and that is mainly because of stodgy value companies. In a down market you don't want SPY anyway you want short term paper (something even the CFO of SVB didn't realize until it was too late). I believe in 2022 COWZ (Cash Cows 100 ETF) & NOBL (S&P Dividend Aristocrats ETF) outperformed even SPY.
Fund 2022 Dividend
COWZ -1.8% 1.70%
NOBL -8.3% 1.77%
SPY -19.5% 1.33%
QQQ -33% 0.54%
DIA -8.8% 1.77%
DIA is a proxy for value so it makes sense it is essentially the same as NOBL. The COWZ ETF is pretty amazing but I guess in down markets investor flock to value which is best represented as high free cash flow yield. Amazingly if you add back the dividend to COWZ it was essentially unchanged. COWZ is a mid-cap value fund so it is different than NOBL or DIA which are large-cap value.