They could also make you invest in their partner companies (or even their own) and have themselves invested prior to that in the same company, then sell later, making them a bigger cut, or similar schemes. What I mean is that it's not that simple.
overall their work is not that hard and statistically doesn't pay off, at least in the past years
They're trying to stay relevant, but ETFs are now the main way of investing and are providing more interest than picking niche fields. They're doing what they can to stay relevant, but it doesn't really work. They still need to complexify a bit your investments to make it seem like they're doing something useful
I can understand it, and respect your decision. At that point when we're talking about such amounts, it's better to offload this mental stress to a reputable company, even if it means a bit lower interest rates
The main thing to get out of this is that you're investing and frankly, it's pretty much all that matter