Trying to answer your questions below:
As you have rightly said, I try to do many things. One reason is perhaps that I am not very good in any one 
But it is erroneous to assume that quant gives the best CAGR. Returns are dependent on multiple factors including underlying market dynamics. What I have found is that a combination of strategies works the best and has the potential to give the most consistent returns, which is what I am looking for, not necessarily the best returns.
The holy grail for me is to be able to have multiple quant-oriented strategies across timeframes and styles. So, a monthly momentum strategy and also a half-yearly mean reversion type strategy.
In the US and other developed markets, quants have been around for much longer. Firms like OSAM, Renaissance, Two Sigma have delivered stellar returns for many years. Individuals like Ed Thorp have become legends doing this. I would argue that even a value investor like Walter Schloss is essentially quant.
If you read through this thread you will know that quant is not a homogenous strategy. There can be as many strategies as investors. Quant can be value based, growth based, momentum based etc etc. So, returns over cycles will depend more on the type of fund strategy than whether it is quant or discretionary.
The main drawback of quant is fact that we don’t have data that is long enough and that the accounting system and market system has changed a lot over the last two decades. But the major benefit of having rules based systems that prevent psychological biases from creeping in is the biggest benefit.
Again, quants do NOT provide massive upside. If you make a bad strategy you will lose money. Apart from that the biggest reason why there are less very successful quants is because it lies at the intersection os two different skills – investing & computational skills. Usually fund managers come from the finance background and are clueless about computational skills. and those who have computational skills don’t have the requisite finanal knowledge. (Makes it a good moat for someone like me, I think!!! )
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