@saachristian757 Just so I understand correctly, you're going to be looking at holding 500+ individual companies by year end then right? In that scenario, I would argue that ETFs are 100% the way to go. Trying to rebalance your 500+ company portfolio as an individual investor is a monstrous task, let alone having to deal with dividend taxes, trading fees accumulated for each individual purchase, etc. Sure, you'll have to pay 41% tax, deemed disposal and so on - but your time has a price.
As a hypothetical alternative, why not aim for 15-20 of your highest conviction individual stocks (diversified), and then add some ETF holdings as a hedge.