Stocks VS Index and ETFs investing.

I don't have the benefit of time and compounding on my side. What is the benefit of owning individual stocks unless you are trying to beat the market, which even the professionals don't always do according to the stats? I've been investing over 20 years, I'd be happy to track the SPY, or a little better, by selling calls and puts on SPY and QQQ, and my other holdings, when the timing is right. Current holdings. $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ , $Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US)$ , $Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE.US)$ , $The Health Care Select Sector SPDR® Fund (XLV.US)$ , and few REITs, like O WPC STAG for a little higher yeild. For some higher beta exposure I'm holding a few like, $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ , $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ , $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ , $Etsy Inc (ETSY.US)$ , $Salesforce (CRM.US)$ , $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ , $Blackstone (BX.US)$ $MagnaChip Semiconductor (MX.US)$ ect, as a smaller part of my portfolio. If I can get average returns of 7-8% over the years, mainly staying in indexes and ETFs, and another 7-8% selling covered calls and cash secured puts on my holdings, who wouldn't be happy with 16% a year? Poke holes in my strategy.